Sorry for the delayed nature of this report. This is the first time I have had to really sit down and focus on what I saw last night. With school back in session, we didn't stay for the last two innings and thus missed the walk off grounder. Let's look at my observations for the first seven innings.
In The Stands:
It was good to see Astros GM Jeff Luhnow in the stands for the game.
On The Mound:
Frederick Tiburcio pitched 5 2/3 innings of good ball. In the first five innings, he had just allowed three base runners and had thrown just 66 pitches (unofficial count). In the fifth, he got the first out on a 1-3 come backer. He then walked his first and only batter of the night. That runner stole second and then advanced to third on a pick of throw that ended in center field. He struck out the next batter before allowing a single that plated the first run. The base runner advanced around the bases on stole bases. The final batter Tiburcio faced hit a gound ball to short that Chase McDonald smothered with a dive but he couldn't recover to get to the base him self and Tiburcio didn't get over in time to cover and the runner was safe and the tying run scored.
Tiburcio finished with 84 pitches unofficially. He struck out six batters. Two of those were strike outs at balls in the dirt that required the catcher to throw down to first. His control was pretty good. Other than the one walk, he didn't go to three balls and any other batter.
Austin Chrismon finished the sixth on one pitch and then pitched the last three innings.
At The Plate:
First of all, it was nice to see Brett Phillips back in the line up. He reached base three times with a double and a pair of walks. He also had a sac bunt.
Tanner Mathis had two singles in the lead off role. He too had a sac bunt.
Thomas Lindauer had two singles and also walked. He scored two runs.
No Astro was credited with an RBI. The first run scored on a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded. The second run scored when the ball squirted away from the Bluefield shortstop for an error. The final run scored when it looked like Brian Holberton had grounded into his third double play but the short stop threw the ball away allowing the winning run to score. Good things happen when you put the ball in play.
In The Field:
There were several nice plays made in the field last night. Tiburcio made a behind the back snag of a sharp grounder (ala Jordan Lyles) in the second inning.
Marc Wik made a nice running catch in right field to end the fourth.
Brett Phillips patrolled center and was effective in his return to action.
The Astros struggled with the team speed of Bluefield. Bluefield had four stolen bases in five attempts. They also advanced a base on a blown pick off move.
Odd Game Delay
The start of the game was delayed because the batters boxes were not lined up correctly. They had to scrape the lines up and start over.
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