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Friday - April 11, 2008
Game 33: Texas at Missouri
This, my friends, was the ugliest game I can remember hearing on the radio. Or, watching on TV. Or seeing in person. I don't think I've ever even really heard about a game this ugly. I ended up listening to most of it on the radio.
It had such a promising start.
Texas got to Aaron Crow right away. Going into tonight's game, Crow had a record of 7-0 with an ERA of 0.69 and he'd only given up 4 runs (all earned) on the season. He'd also pitched 3 complete games. So, going into the game, you had to think the Horns were gonna struggle. But, not so much. To start. Texas quickly broke Crow's 42+ innings of scoreless pitching when Russell Moldenhauer hit a 1-out single to score Michael Torres from 3b. The Horns went on to score 4 more runs in the inning. The Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the inning. Sweet. Then, Kyle Russell hit a 2-out, 3-run homerun to triple Crow's earned run output on the year. In just two innings.
The Tigers then got to the Texas starter, Austin Wood. He gave up 3 solo homeruns in the bottom of the 2nd. No worries, though. Right? The Horns still had a 5-run lead. They even padded it with another run in the 3rd. And, then the wheels really fell off. The Tigers scored 10 in the bottom of the 3rd. Yep, 10. Sadly, they were not done there. They scored 6 more in the 4th. And, 6 again in the 6th (in response to a single run scored by the Horns in the top of the inning) and then 2 more in the 7th. Texas scraped a couple together in the 8th. 'Course, the Tigers answered with 4 more in the bottom of the inning. For a grand total of 31.
The wind was a factor in the game. No doubt. It was blowing out and hard. Mizzou did a much better job of taking advantage as the game wore on.
Craig Way and Keith Moreland made much of the fact, when the Horns first fell behind, that there probably wasn't much to worry about because the Missouri bullpen was nothing to write home about. And, there was that wind to help the batters out. Aaron Crow, though, after giving up those 9 runs, tossed a couple of 3- and 4-batter innings to make himself eligible for the win. Rick Zagone went in for the Tigers at the start of the 6th and finished the game. He only gave up 3 runs, including a solo homerun to Kyle Russell (Kyle's 2nd of the game). Hardly the pushover you'd expect from a weak bullpen, eh? The Horns, in contrast, went like so:
- Austin Wood: 2 innings pitched, 6 earned runs, 1 strikeout, 7 hits (including 4 homeruns)
- Cole Green: 0.2 innings, 6 runs (2 unearned), 2 strikeouts, 6 hits
- Stayton Thomas: 0.1 innings, 3 runs (1 unearned), 1 walk, 2 hits (1 homerun)
- Kyle Walker: 0 innings (3 batters faced), 3 earned runs, 3 walks
- Pat McCrory (best performance of the night): 2 innings, 1 earned run, 2 strikeouts, 2 hits (1 homerun)
- Juston Street (3rd appearance of the year): 0.2 innings, 6 earned runs, 7 hits
- Drew Bishop (1st appearance of the year): 2.1 innings, 6 earned runs, 7 walks, 2 hits (1 homerun)
Jacob Priday hit 4 homeruns to drive in 9 runs for the Tigers. Priday was due up in the 8th with the bases loaded but the Tigers finally took mercy on the situation and pinch-hit for him. The pinch-hitter (Meyr) doubled in 2 runs...the 29th and 30th for the Tigers. Stunning.
The line:
| R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||||
| Texas | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | 12 | 12 | 2 | ||||||||
| Missouri | 0 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | x | - | 31 | 26 | 1 | ||||||||
When's the last time you saw a team jump out to an 8-run lead (and go on to score 4 more runs) and then end up losing that game...by 19 runs???? Yeah, I'm sure I've never seen it either.
Bah. I sure do hope the team wins the next two. There is a chance, by the way, that they'll get some snow before tomorrow's scheduled start time. Sigh.
Ugh. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.
Posted by Joanna at 10:32 PM