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“Somewhere down the line, things will even out. It just might be a softball game.”
— Danny Darwin, pitcher with the Brewers after losing 16 games
in which Milwaukee scored only 21 runs.
Assuming you have a long career like Danny Darwin, it is likely that your good and bad luck will even out during your career. It seldom evens out in one game or in the case of the Astros on Friday, July 20, in one half inning, but that’s exactly what happened.
The bad luck came in the ninth inning when Brad Lidge threw a pitch in the dirt, near Nate McLouth’s feet. Replays showed that the ball actually hit between his feet, but thinking quickly, McLouth hopped up and limped toward first base. Home plate umpire Joe West ruled that he had been hit, which prompted an argument with Astros catcher Brad Ausmus and manager Phil Garner. West was unconvinced. The hit batter loaded the bases with one out and a one run lead. At that point, it looked like the snake-bit 2007 Astros and their closer, Lidge, would blow another lead.
But Lidge struck out the next batter. That brought one of the Pirates best hitters, Freddy Sanchez, to the plate. Sanchez quickly fell behind in the count and Lidge tried to put him away with a slider. The pitch hit in the dirt in front of home plate and caromed up over Ausmus and hit West, dropping to the ground about a foot from the plate. Ausmus didn’t see it right away, but Lidge frantically pointed to it as the tying run was racing home. Ausmus finally located the ball, grabbed it, and tagged the plate for a force out to end the game.
As it turned out, the evening out process lasted only five minutes. The apparent miscall by West was offset by the last pitch hitting him and dropping down within reach of Ausmus. If the ball had not hit the umpire, it would have gone by him to the backstop and the tying run would have scored.
Sometimes a break like that can be a turning point and both Lidge and the Astros are in dire need of one. It was only the second save of the year for Lidge, and only the second win in seven games on the road trip for the team. If Lidge had 20 saves, as he normally would at this stage of the season, instead of two, the Astros would be up near the top of the standings with the Brewers and Cubs. As it is, they are still 13 games out of first place and will likely need 20 more saves from Lidge this year to get back in the race. It is unlikely this will happen in just over two months of play. But it’s also unlikely that Lidge, Ausmus and Garner would be inadvertently redeemed by the wide-bodied umpire who did nothing but stand there. |
