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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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TexArcher
TexArcher

Bregs is going Crawford Boxes right here.

ERhine
ERhine

Prior to the footage being edited by Bender:

wesleywest
wesleywest

Two Diamond Club tickets available for the Sunday night game.  Free.  Need to pick them up from me in 77027. Rules: Poster must be a big contributor to this thread/last years shag thread.  No gue

closetojumping

closetojumping 62131

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

our cleanup hitter is 4-4 with two doubles and a bomb.  we should hit him 8th until he figures it out.

No doubt it’s all figured out and totally justified to see him hitting there. He’s got two HRs this season, both against the Rangers and two months apart. Give him the silver slugger at first base already. 

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10478

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Posted
No doubt it’s all figured out and totally justified to see him hitting there. He’s got two HRs this season, both against the Rangers and two months apart. Give him the silver slugger at first base already. 

You do realize that he only hits cleanup when one of the top of lineup players is out, right?
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closetojumping

closetojumping 62131

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Just now, TonyTexas said:


You do realize that he only hits cleanup when one of the top of lineup players is out, right?

Deeply penetrating and insightful post right here. Truly enlightening.  

The origins of this discussion were that Gurriel shouldn’t be hitting clean-up or anywhere close until we see power return. The injury he had is notorious for sapping slugging percentage from hitters. It’s idiotic to have him hitting in the fat part of the lineup until we see a return to form. Maybe today is the start, but it hasn’t been there, in the five hole or replacing an injured Correa at clean-up. 

This isn’t really a debate. Gandorf threw out an easy, lazy take perverting the original discussion, but yeah, I’m sure we’re all good to go now and his power outage has in no way contributed to our offensive woes in the first part of this season as he’s hit 5th and now 4th. Baseball is of course all about a single game performance to negate a third of a season’s issues. 

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HtownHorn

HtownHorn 14446

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, UTHornFan014 said:

Giving up 13 hits in 4 1/3 innings is actually kind of impressive...

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

A 3rd of them can be accounted for by the stupid shift, and another 3rd on fluke hits off of soft contact.

Edited by HtownHorn
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ckhorn

ckhorn 208

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Posted
3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Deeply penetrating and insightful post right here. Truly enlightening.  

The origins of this discussion were that Gurriel shouldn’t be hitting clean-up or anywhere close until we see power return. The injury he had is notorious for sapping slugging percentage from hitters. It’s idiotic to have him hitting in the fat part of the lineup until we see a return to form. Maybe today is the start, but it hasn’t been there, in the five hole or replacing an injured Correa at clean-up. 

This isn’t really a debate. Gandorf threw out an easy, lazy take perverting the original discussion, but yeah, I’m sure we’re all good to go now and his power outage has in no way contributed to our offensive woes in the first part of this season as he’s hit 5th and now 4th. Baseball is of course all about a single game performance to negate a third of a season’s issues. 

I agree with most of this and I maybe should see a Doctor tomorrow, but who the hell are you going to bat at that spot. It is what it is.

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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8052

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7 hours ago, WBT said:

In a 162 game season?  Good luck with that

I know. Baseball is baseball. History shows weird stuff happens out of the clear blue on occasion. But the way DK has been pitching, if he keeps throwing every fifth day, that won’t be the last time we see it this year. Yesterday and the one LMJ game were easily this year’s worst starts for the staff.

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9369

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Hope we find a national league contender that will take that bearded white trash mother fucker off our hands before the trade deadline. 



Repost: that’s now how this works... that’s not how any of this works.

Even if the advanced metrics show he should have better traditional stats, no one is going to take an upcoming free agent who is 3-8 with a 4.45 ERA that has shown himself to be inconsistent from one year to the next
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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29174

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1 hour ago, Scraps said:

Same. I Also have no problem with him saying it.

 

yeah, i took is at a bit bitchy and excuse-y but not throwing teammates under the bus.  if anything, seems like he's blaming the shift, and he might very well be right in that.  but i'm sure he's had plenty of help in the past with the shift/advanced scouting.

it does seem strange to shift the same way when dk is pitching as when our other starters are going, who all throw 96+.

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29174

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as shitty as he's pitching, i'm not completely sure we're a better team with him in the bullpen (or on the dl) and mchugh as sp5.  mchugh is providing value right now and i feel like we're starting to use him better, and he's been nails all season.  i don't know what dk would do in the pen.

if we could figure out a way to win ~50% of his starts, that would be fine.  he did have a 3-4 game stretch where he matched up against the best pitchers in the league recently.  he's the sacrificial lamb, and i'm fine with that.  maybe we can maneuver some off days and skip him a couple times while he gets his shit right.  of course he just pitched the day before our off day.  :/

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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8052

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3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

he did have a 3-4 game stretch where he matched up against the best pitchers in the league recently.  he's the sacrificial lamb, and i'm fine with that.:/

Are those best pitchers all named Ohtani and hitting for themselves against us? While I do understand the extra "pressure" DK might feel facing off against another teams' aces, I don't see how it's the reason he's so often been getting pummeled on the mound. 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9369

Posted
Posted

Meant to post this the other day.
This was back on Friday before his last start. Anyone have his pitch breakdown yesterday?


Has Dallas Keuchel strayed too much from his bread-and-butter sinker?

Dallas Keuchel has made a living throwing late-moving two-seam fastballs. In the past, he’s been so confident in his ability to locate his sinker down and away to righties he’s gone the first time through the opposing lineup without throwing anything else. When at his best, he’s challenging hitters with his signature pitch.

That’s why it’s been so curious to see Keuchel stray from his sinker this season. The former Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star has been a different pitcher through 13 starts, one who relies heavily on a cutter and mixes in elevated four-seam fastballs to change a batter’s eye level. It’s a mix that hasn’t translated to success.

Keuchel, who will be a first-time free agent after the season, has been the weakest link in baseball’s best rotation through 40 percent of the schedule. The 30-year-old bearded left-hander has a 4.13 ERA in 80 2/3 innings. The underlying statistics aren’t any better.

The reduced sinker usage is a result of Keuchel’s attempt to attack batters’ weaknesses as opposed to playing to his strengths. He’s thrown it for only 43.6 percent of his pitches this season, according to Brooks Baseball. In each of his two All-Star seasons (2015 and 2017), he relied on the pitch 50 percent of the time or more.

In place of those missing two-seamers, Keuchel has thrown 20.2 percent cutters (up from 12.5 percent last year) and 9.7 percent four-seam fastballs (up from 4.3 percent). He feels both his cutter and four-seamer play against right-handed hitters. (Against lefties he’s still exclusively a sinker-slider pitcher, which has been his career norm.)

Keuchel’s next start is Sunday afternoon against the Rangers, the first of probably seven before the All-Star break. By then, he anticipates, his pitch usage will have normalized some.

“I feel like every once in a while you’ve got to kind of adjust to the hitters to go back to what your norm is,” he said. “I’d say probably here in the next six, seven starts — probably all of the starts before the All-Star break — I probably would start throwing a lot more two-seams down and away and getting back to the norm. Just because I think it’s about time to start doing that.”

On top of his altered pitch mix, Keuchel’s slider hasn’t been as effective this season. He’s generated swing and misses on by far a career-worst 11.8 percent of his sliders compared to a career-high 21.3 percent last year, according to Brooks Baseball. The pitch is responsible for four of the 12 home runs and five of the 19 doubles he has allowed in 2018.

Keuchel pointed out he also hasn’t thrown his slider as much this season. His 18 percent usage rate, while only 1.7 percent less than last year, would be a career low since he first unleashed the pitch on major league hitters in 2013. But he admitted “the feel hasn’t been there.” In the meantime, his favoring of the cutter has pushed the slider to the backburner.

“I think it’s just kind of ridden with how I’ve done in the box score,” he said of his slider. “[it’s] been very inconsistent. But it’s still there. At times it’s been my best pitch. At times it’s been my worst pitch. So, once I establish the correct feel and the shape of it, it will be pretty evident that it’s back.”

Keuchel’s inning-by-inning results illustrate how inconsistent he’s pitched overall. In his last start, June 5 against the Mariners, he allowed six of his seven earned runs before he recorded his fourth out.

Dallas Keuchel 2018 Inning-by-Inning Stats
Inning ERA OPS against
1st 9.0 1.004
2nd 2.77 .565
3rd 0.69 .417
4th 2.77 .620
5th 4.50 .678
6th 6.00 .922
7th 4.76 .828
8th 0.0 .714
“I don’t really know why I’m struggling in the first inning,” he said. “It’s a frustrating game at times. But I feel like I’m right there. There’s really no worry or any doubt in my mind that we can’t flip the script on the results.”

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9369

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Y’all know what happened 15 years ago today?

Good off day reading.
Love The Athletic



“You dumbass, we just threw a no-hitter”: The behind-the-scenes story of how six Astros pitchers no-hit the Yankees

You don’t walk into Yankee Stadium with Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, and all those guys just expect to no-hit these guys,” Billy Wagner recalls. “I don’t think you do that in any major league game, but especially those guys at Yankee Stadium.”

And you certainly don’t expect to use six pitchers in order to do it.

But that’s what the Houston Astros did on June 11, 2003, as Wagner and five other Astros pitchers collaborated to throw the most unusual no-hitter in baseball history, one with 151 pitches — the highest number ever thrown in a no-hitter with recorded pitch data.

The Athletic talked to each Astros pitcher as well as a number of teammates and other key characters from that day to capture what it was like in both clubhouses and what they remember today.

Prologue

After a 20-4 start to the season, the Yankees had cooled to 35-27 by the time they welcomed the NL Central’s first-place team to the Bronx. Led by future Hall of Famers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, the Astros had stumbled out of the gate but arrived for their first-ever series at Yankee Stadium on a seven-game winning streak and a season-best nine games over .500.

Following a 5-3 Yankees win in the first game of three, the second game of the series had New York’s Jeff Weaver scheduled to face Houston’s Roy Oswalt. In his third year in the majors, the 25-year-old Oswalt had established himself as one of the best young power pitchers in the game.

“I walked out of the bullpen that night thinking this may be the night I throw a no-hitter,” Oswalt recalls.

His fastball was alive, his breaking ball crisp, his command on point. He was the kind of pitcher who always felt like he had no-hit stuff on any given night. But he knew there was a little something extra on this night. And his catcher thought so too.

“I remember Brad (Ausmus) telling me as we were coming out of the bullpen, ‘I don’t know if it will carry over, but you’ve got some of the best stuff I’ve seen so far this year,’” Oswalt says.

1st inning

When the Astros scored in the top of the first against Weaver, Oswalt took the mound with a 1-0 lead. He retired Alfonso Soriano on a fly ball to center field and then struck out Derek Jeter to start the game.

“I felt great,” Oswalt recalls. “First two batters, the ball was jumping out of my hand. You could tell they weren’t seeing it very well. I actually felt like I had good enough stuff to go the distance that night and not give up a hit.”

Oswalt threw 21 pitches, 15 of them strikes, in the 1-2-3 first inning, whiffing Jason Giambi on a full count to end the frame. As Giambi swung and missed, Oswalt paused, then walked towards the visitor’s dugout. He reached his bare right hand towards his groin, which in baseball isn’t that unusual, but this time it was different. Oswalt knew right then and there that his special night wasn’t going to last much longer.

“The very last pitch that I threw to Giambi — I remember it was an inside fastball — and I felt that I tore my groin the last pitch of that inning. I remember walking off the field thinking I’m not going to make it through the rest of the game, no way, not the way that felt.”

Wade Miller, the Astros starter the previous night, walked over to Oswalt when he got to the dugout.

“Man, the ball is jumping out of your hand,” Miller told Oswalt. “It’s unbelievable what it looked like from the dugout.”

“I won’t ever make it past the second inning,” Oswalt replied. “I just tore my groin.”

Oswalt didn’t tell anyone else because he knew it was an automatic exit. Not wanting to tax the bullpen with eight innings of work against a potent lineup, Oswalt decided he was going to try to get through a couple more innings.

“I threw maybe three warmup pitches the next inning and it was killing me. I didn’t say nothing.”

2nd inning

Oswalt threw two pitches to Jorge Posada, the leadoff batter in the second inning. Then everyone knew it was over.

“I think I was throwing 87-88 (down about 10 mph from the first inning), and Brad (Ausmus, the Astros’ catcher) comes out and said, ‘Man, what is going on?’ And I told him. He said, ‘You’ve got to come out of the game.’”

“I think I can make it,” Oswalt insisted. But Ausmus knew it just wasn’t going to happen. Oswalt had been on the disabled list with groin issues in 2001 and just one month earlier in the 2003 season. Having aggravated the exact same thing, no one was going to let Oswalt throw another pitch.

“And that’s when they came to get me.”


Houston Astros’ starter Roy Oswalt leaves the game in the second inning against the New York Yankees after straining his right groin muscle. (Photo by James Keivom/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
The first man waved in from the bullpen was 27-year-old right-hander Pete Munro, the designated long reliever who had made two starts in place of Oswalt during the earlier DL stint. And because of a tip from the closer Wagner, Munro wasn’t completely shocked to be in the game so soon.

“Wagner was always on his mark,” Munro says. “He told me early on, ‘Get out there early. Roy might be a little sore, he’s been having trouble with that (groin) so mentally prepare yourself early on.’ And as a long man, I kind of fell into the habit of doing that.”

Still…the second inning?

“At that point, you’re never fully prepared to go in,” Munro says. But the Queens native had a strong hometown cheering section and the adrenaline rush of pitching at Yankee Stadium helped him get loose quickly. “It’s kind of like go-time at a fight. Bell rings, you’ve got to go.”

Munro inherited a 1-1 count on Posada, walked him, and then fell behind Robin Ventura 2-0. Astros pitching coach Burt Hooton went out to visit Munro.

Munro respected Hooton, who won Game 6 of the 1981 World Series as a Los Angeles Dodger on this same Yankee Stadium mound. But he found Hooton’s mound visits to be pretty useless.

“He would come out and it’s not like words of wisdom,” Munro says. “He’d come out and be like ‘What are you doin’?’ And I’d be, ‘Well Hoot, it seems like I’m having a tough time throwing strikes. I’m trying.’ And he’s like ‘I can get a trucker down here to try. I need strikes.’

“I was more of a control guy so it was a little frustrating to me. Maybe the atmosphere was getting to me a little bit or I wasn’t properly loose, but I thought I was. Maybe it was just the jitters.”

Many of the Astros had never been to Yankee Stadium before. They were still a National League team in 2003 and interleague play had started only six years earlier. Several players had visited Monument Park the day before and soaked in the history.

Munro, who came up with the Toronto Blue Jays four years earlier, wasn’t awed by his surroundings.

“I grew up hating the Yankees,” Munro says. “I was a Mets fan.”

Whatever the reason for his early struggle, Munro settled down after Hooton went back to the dugout. He retired Ventura and Matsui on fly balls and struck out Todd Zeile on a full count to end the second inning.


Houston Astros pitcher Pete Munro delivers a pitch to a New York Yankees batter during the second inning at Yankee Stadium. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda)
3rd inning

When Lance Berkman homered off Weaver in the top of the third inning, the Astros took a 4-0 lead. As hard as it might be to hold down the Yankees’ lineup by digging deep into their bullpen, the Astros had a sizable lead. And they knew they just needed to get through five or six innings in order to get the ball to what was becoming a powerful back end of their bullpen — setup men Brad Lidge and Octavio Dotel, and the closer Wagner.

“They were huge for us,” Ausmus says. “Kind of similar to what people are trying to build nowadays. They were coming out, all throwing 97-100 miles an hour. Now it seems like everyone does that, but back then it wasn’t as common.”

“They were our Big Three,” says Astros third baseman Geoff Blum. “So we knew there was a luxury waiting for us if we could get into that seventh, eighth and ninth.”

Getting to them was still an issue, and the Yankees looked ready to break the game open against Munro in the bottom of the third.

“I remember thinking I have to have a quick inning, I need a 1-2-3 to eat up some innings,” Munro said.

He got two quick outs, the second on a nice barehanded grab and throw by Blum on a bouncer by Juan Rivera. But on the next batter, Soriano, Blum bobbled the ball on a backhand play and the speedy Soriano was safe at first on the E-5.

“It was a standard two-hop backhand, and I may have gotten a little relaxed after making a great play and just happened to clank it, and maybe fortunately so — it ended up being an error,” Blum says. “I don’t remember it being an overly hard play, it was just a routine play that I botched.”

Munro began to unravel. Soriano stole second base, Jeter walked and then Munro hit Giambi with a 2-2 pitch to load the bases.

“All of a sudden Munro’s pitch count starts to escalate and you worry about who’s going to have to come in and relieve after that inning, if not sooner,” Blum says.

This time another mound visit from Hooton.

“At that point, he’s probably out giving somebody more time in the bullpen,” Munro says.

The switch-hitting Posada was up with the bases loaded, able to tie the game with one swing. Ventura and Matsui, both lefty batters, were on deck. Warming up quickly in the bullpen was left-hander Nate Bland, who was about to be next man up if Munro couldn’t get out of trouble.

Munro fell behind Posada 3-0. But then Posada, a patient hitter with a good eye, swung at a changeup down and off the plate that easily would have been ball four and forced in a run. The ball bounced weakly to first, where Jeff Bagwell picked it up and stepped on the bag for the final out of the inning, no-hitter still intact.

“That should have been a run scored, if you look at the pitch that he swung at,” Munro says. “It might have been a good changeup in my eyes at the time, but I recall getting away with one at that point.”

It was the biggest out of the game for the Astros, because if Posada reaches base in any way the Yankees get at least one run on the board and Munro is out of the game, the Astros digging deeper into their bullpen to stem the tide. In the bullpen, Bland sat down and never got back up.

“If it wasn’t for Jorge swinging at a bad changeup it could have been a different story,” Munro says.

4th inning

Still holding the 4-0 lead, Munro was allowed to start the fourth inning. After groundouts by Ventura and Matsui, Zeile walked. It was Munro’s third walk and with his pitch count at 55, manager Jimy Williams handed the ball to right-hander Kirk Saarloos.

Recently back from the minors, Saarloos had a 6.46 ERA but had thrown nine scoreless innings in relief since his recall.


A game ball signed by all six Astros pitchers now resides in Cooperstown, although Wagner claims that he still owns the actual ball that recorded the final out. (Photo: Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Saarloos finished the fourth inning by getting Raul Mondesi on a fly ball to the warning track in left. He was on the mound in the fifth inning for what turned out to be the best defensive play of the game.

5th inning

With one out in the fifth, Soriano hit a soft liner to short left field. Berkman raced in and made the grab before tumbling to the ground.

“At that point, it was like — ‘Oh cool, nice play, now we’ve got two outs,’” Saarloos says. “It wasn’t anything to do with no-hitter thinking at that point. It was just, ‘Nice play Lance.’”

“We were lucky because we had a very good defense,” Blum says. “And it’s interesting that Lance, who could play a very good center field, happened to be playing left field because (Craig) Biggio moved to center when (Jeff) Kent signed as a second baseman.”

Saarloos then struck out Jeter to end the fifth, a memory still vivid for the then 24-year-old righty.

“When the longtime PA announcer (Bob Sheppard) goes ‘Numba 2, Derek Jetah’ and you’re like ‘Holy smokes, I’m about to face Derek Jeter,” Saarloos says.

“I remember throwing a sinker underneath his hands and him swinging over it and then walking off the mound like ‘Dude, I just struck out Derek Jeter! I don’t strike out anybody and I just struck out Derek Jeter, this is unbelievable!’”

6th inning

“It’s getting pretty exciting the way this game is piecing together for the Houston pitching staff,” play-by-play man Bill Brown told the audience on the Astros’ TV broadcast. “Through five innings the Yankees have zero, zero, zero.”

Because of their strong back end of the bullpen, the Astros believed they were in good position to win the game. But throwing a no-hitter was still something that hadn’t registered for them.

There had been three walks, plus the hit batter and the error — all of which came on Munro’s watch. But the Yankees began feeling like they missed their chance with Oswalt out after one inning. They knew that Lidge, Dotel and Wagner had become an imposing force they didn’t want to face.

“That’s what we were all taught — get the starter out and you’ve got a chance because you’re going to blow up their pen, but their ‘pen was so good,” Giambi says. “We knew you had to score some runs early because you weren’t going to score a lot of runs late.

“I remember seeing video on these guys (Lidge, Dotel and Wagner) and they were definitely guys that you had to swing early on. You couldn’t let (Lidge) get to that devastating slider. You couldn’t let them get ahead in the count, especially since we hadn’t faced them a lot.”

Most of the Yankees hadn’t seen these guys at all aside from a few at-bats in exhibition games in the spring. And that’s what it was starting to feel like for Giambi.

“Did I even face any pitcher twice?” Giambi asks. “I think I faced all new guys every at-bat after that.”

Indeed, five of the Yankees hitters that night faced a different pitcher in every time up.

“It made it like a spring training game,” Giambi says. “Especially because the Astros were in the National League at that time, so it’s not like we got a chance to face them a lot. And they had a good team then, so it’s not like we were facing a bunch of schmucks coming out of the ‘pen either.”

Lidge relieved Saarloos to begin the bottom of the sixth inning.

“To be honest, I did not know it was a no-hitter when I came in,” says Lidge, then 26 and in his first full year in the majors. “But at that point in the game you’re only through five innings and there have been a lot of baserunners, so in the bullpen you’re obviously paying attention, but the no-hitter thing wasn’t really something that was on my radar after five innings.”

This is when it hit Ausmus.

“I didn’t even know there was a no-hitter going until I saw Brad Lidge coming in and saw a zero under the hits column,” Ausmus says.

“Part of the reason it didn’t cross my mind was because there seemed to be a lot of traffic earlier in the game. There was so much going on on the bases, it didn’t even dawn on me that it might be a no-hitter.”

But with Lidge on his way in, and Dotel and Wagner ready to follow, the full reality hit Ausmus, who said to himself, “We’ve got a shot at this.”

The first batter Lidge faced was Giambi, who took that “swing early” scouting report into action and ripped the first pitch he saw on a line to right field.

“I remember how short the porch was in right field and seeing highlights of guys who don’t necessarily get the whole thing and hit it out to right field, maybe a jam shot goes out,” Lidge says. “And then Giambi takes a heck of a big swing and hits it to right field, and I was like ‘Uh-oh.’”

Giambi didn’t get it all. “Kind of in between,” he said. “I didn’t hit it up high enough to be a homer and didn’t hit it low enough to get a hit.”

Right fielder Richard Hidalgo caught it a few feet in front of the warning track for the first out in the sixth.

“After Giambi hit that ball I felt a little more settled in, because I felt like that was their shot,” Lidge says. “That was it and they missed it, I could take a little bit of an exhale and then just try to attack the next two guys.”

Exhale because he didn’t want the Yankees to get back into the game, not because he knew what many others had figured out by now.

“The Yankees don’t have a hit yet in this ballgame,” Astros TV analyst Jim Deshaies said on the broadcast. “And we’re at the phase now with Lidge in there, Dotel and Wagner — the guys that are toughest to hit…this could get very interesting.”

Deshaies, fearing that he had jinxed it, remarked that Posada would probably “dunk one into left.” But after working a full count, Posada flew out to Biggio in right-center before Ventura flew out to Berkman in left. It was the last ball the Yankees would hit out of the infield.

As the sixth inning ended and the Astros’ broadcast headed into commercial, Brown noted, “The game continues to grow in excitement.”


Houston Astros’ Brad Lidge delivers a pitch in relief against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
7th inning

The Astros added a run in the top of the seventh to make it 5-0, and Lidge set down the Yankees in order in the bottom half, striking out Mondesi to complete his two perfect innings on 23 pitches.

While there were still players on the field for the Astros who didn’t know there was a zero in the hits column, the group of pitchers doing the deed had begun to figure it out and were acting appropriately superstitious.

“I went back in the clubhouse (after the seventh inning) and Saarloos and Munro were in there,” Lidge recalls. “They were looking up at the TV and I get in there and one of them said to me ‘Don’t say anything.’ I still didn’t know. At that point you’re so locked into pitching, the no-hitter thing was still not on my radar. I was just feeling really good about getting six up and six down at Yankee Stadium. I was feeling great, but it had not occurred to me at that point yet that we had a no-hitter going.

“When they’re looking at the TV and keep going ‘Don’t say anything’ — I was like, ‘What are they talking about?’ I looked up at the monitor and it took me about half a second to see the box score and be like ‘Oh crap!’ And then I looked and them and was like, ‘OK I won’t say anything.’”

Saarloos remembers it as more of a non-verbal encounter.

“We all just kind of looked at each other and our eyes kind of opened up,” Saarloos says. “We’re not saying anything. It’s kind of more of a facial expression thing. We all know the unwritten rules, we all know what’s going on. There doesn’t really need to be anything said. You’re rooting a little bit harder, cheering a little bit harder watching it on TV.”

Munro, still upset that his outing was so shaky that he failed to eat up more innings, remembers being the grumpy one.

“Lidge goes, ‘You don’t know what’s going on here.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I get it, it’s a no-hitter but it’s going to take us like five or six guys to do it.’”

Besides Munro, there was one other person in the Astros clubhouse who knew what was going on but wasn’t all that excited. Oswalt, the starter who lasted only one inning, watched quietly in a corner and made phone calls to set up his doctor’s appointment for the next day.

8th inning

After Lidge finished up his work in the seventh, the Astros scored again in the eighth against reliever Jason Anderson to take a 6-0 lead. Dotel, a hard-throwing 29-year old who had become one of the best relievers in the National League, made his way into the game.

Dotel was unaware that anything historic was going on. In fact, he usually had little idea about anything going on before he entered a game. He would do anything and everything during the course of the game except actually watch it.

“Wagner was always all over me because I was in the bullpen and I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the game,” Dotel says. “I was talking to the fans, throwing balls to the fans, having a good time, enjoying my time in the bullpen. And Billy was the ‘jefe’ in the bullpen. He was like, ‘Dotel, can you please watch the game?’ He was all over me every time.”

There was a method to Dotel’s madness.

“When I played I tried not to concentrate 100 percent on what was going on in the game. If I did that, it would give me a little pressure on myself and I didn’t want to do that.”

Blissfully unaware, Dotel entered the game in the eighth inning knowing nothing other than the Astros had a big lead.

“I had no idea a no-hitter was going on, I swear,” says Dotel, who was about to make some history all by himself.

Rivera, who came closest to a hit on the ball Blum barehanded back in the third inning, struck out on three pitches to start the inning, waving at Dotel’s 97 mph fastball up and out of the zone.

Soriano, who also came close to a hit with his liner to left in the fifth inning, whiffed on Dotel’s slider down and away, but Ausmus failed to glove it and Soriano reached on a wild pitch.

Jeter worked a full count before striking out on another mid-90s fastball from Dotel, who had struck out three in a row, but because of the wild pitch had to face one more batter, Giambi.

“I got really pumped up when I struck out Jeter,” Dotel says. “It was really exciting because I didn’t really want to give up a run. That’s what I was thinking — we had a shutout in New York with all those guys pitching. The only thing that I remember thinking in that inning was I don’t want to give up a run.”

Giambi struck out on a 2-2 breaking ball in the dirt. Ausmus blocked it this time and tagged Giambi for the final out.

“You’re going up there battling, just trying to put the bat on the ball,” Giambi says. “You haven’t seen this guy, he’s in the National League. Before you know it they’re throwing a no-hitter and we’re scrambling in the ninth to try to get a hit.”

Dotel’s line score read: 1 inning, 4 strikeouts.

“I struck out four guys in one inning, I never heard of that,” Dotel says, still unaware that he had put the Astros within three outs of a no-hitter.

“I got to the dugout and everybody was quiet. That exciting inning I just had, I feel like I didn’t celebrate with the guys like I was supposed to. It was kind of quiet. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Dotel went back into the clubhouse to change out of his sweaty undershirt, only then realizing what was about to happen.

What would have happened if Dotel had known it was a no-hitter when he started the eighth inning?

“I’d probably fuck it up,” Dotel says, not even laughing. “Because I was going to have a lot of pressure on myself. I’m not going to lie to you. Probably I would have given it up.”


Houston Astros relievers, from left, Brad Lidge, Kirk Saarloos, Billy Wagner, Octavio Dotel and Pete Munro celebrate after combining with starter Roy Oswalt to throw a no-hitter against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda)
9th inning

The Astros extended their lead to 8-0 with two runs off Al Reyes in the top of the ninth. There was little doubt who was coming in to close out the game. That is, unless you still didn’t know what was happening. And there were many still in Astros uniforms that did not.

There were only three relievers left in the Astros bullpen —right-hander Ricky Stone, the lefty Bland and the closer Wagner.

Both Stone and Bland pitched the previous night, but now with such a big lead, Bland thought for sure he would be called on to finish out the game and save Wagner for another day. But when the bullpen phone rang, Bland looked up to see Wagner had already started to warm up.

“There was no doubt, I was going in the game regardless,” says Wagner, who had recently reached the 200-save milestone. He wasn’t about to let someone else grab his share of history.

“That’s vintage Billy Wagner,” Saarloos says. “’Dude, I’m the closer. I don’t care what the score is, I’m coming in to finish this thing off, that’s my job.’”

Bland had made his major-league debut only one month earlier. He was perplexed — even a bit perturbed — not to be able to pitch in a game his team led by eight runs in the ninth inning.

“I honestly did not realize it was a no-hitter at the time,” Bland says. “I’m sitting there going, ‘Why are they putting Billy Wagner in?’ I don’t understand this. Is there something I’m not getting? And I turned to Ricky Stone and said, ‘Why are they putting Billy in? This isn’t a save situation!’”

Stone stared at Bland.

“You don’t know?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?” Bland asked, staring back.

Stone wasn’t jinxing it, not now.

“I’m not saying a word,” he replied.

Bland turned away.

“A few pitches later I looked up at the scoreboard and was like — Ohhhhhh!”

On the Houston TV broadcast, Brown was running down the list of no-hitters in franchise history. “A total of nine by Astros pitchers,” Brown said. “But none in this fashion.”

In an 8-0 game, Wagner was fueled by adrenaline. Not just because of the unique game now in his protection, but also because he recalled the Yankee scout who long ago told him he was too short for them to consider drafting. Now he was pitching in Yankee Stadium for the first time, about to finish the first no-hitter there against the home team since Detroit’s Virgil Trucks did it in 1952.

Wagner blew 100 mph fastballs by Posada and pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell for the first two outs in the ninth. Eight straight Yankees batters had struck out, including Soriano, who reached base on the wild pitch. The Yankees were finding out what all the fuss was about with the back end of this Astros bullpen. They were barely seeing the ball, let alone touching it.

Matsui, the Yankees’ last hope for a hit, swung at the first pitch from Wagner and grounded a ball to Bagwell at first base. Wagner shot from the mound to cover first and took the toss, stepped on first, and then pumped his fist.



The immediate aftermath

“There it is!” was the call by Brown. “A no-hitter for the Astros with six different pitchers combining!”

Wagner was fired up and in a mood to celebrate. But something wasn’t right about the scene.

There was no dogpile at the mound and nobody tried lifting anyone on their shoulders. There were a few pats on the back and some high fives, but it seemed to be something in between a regular win in June and a typical no-hitter celebration.

“It was awkward is the best way to say it,” Lidge says.

And that’s because even as that last out was made, some of the players on the field didn’t know what just happened.

“I know Bagwell and Kent, those guys were clueless,” Wagner said.

How was it possible for a team to throw a no-hitter and guys who actually played in the game not know even after the last out?

“Well I think it’s a little bit awkward when you have six guys throw a no-hitter,” Ausmus says. “Normally it’s one guy, one guy grinding it out for nine innings, so that’s quite an accomplishment. But Wags just kinda came in and did what he normally did, he got three outs.”

Blum watched Wagner fist pump and looked quizzically at shortstop Adam Everett, who was doing the same thing. Only then did Blum realize what had happened.

Kent, the veteran second baseman, famously got most of the grief from his teammates for not knowing what just took place.

“Some people had their arms up in the air, other people were looking around wondering what to do, and then there’s Jeff Kent looking at Wagner like he was crazy,” Lidge says.

“Wow, you guys get excited about beating these Yankees,” Blum recalls hearing Kent say.

To which Wagner replied, “You dumbass, we just threw a no-hitter.”

Wagner is still a little turned off because some of his teammates didn’t know the situation.

“It was kind of a buzzkill,” Wagner says.


Houston Astros relief pitchers, from left rear, Billy Wagner, Octavio Dotel, Brad Lidge, front from left, Kirk Saarloos and Pete Munro talk a day after the five and starter Roy Oswalt combined to no-hit the Yankees. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)
But Wagner, the only Astros pitcher who actually knew there was a no-hitter in progress while he was on the mound, acknowledged the benefit of having fielders who weren’t feeling the pressure normally present during a no-hitter.

“For them, there was no buildup, no drama,” Wagner says. “They played as relaxed as could be.”

Blum and Berkman made the best defensive plays of the game, but years later Giambi says none stuck out in his mind as the play that saved the no-hitter.

“Normally in a no-hitter, there was a diving stop or a diving catch,” Giambi says. “And that’s really what’s shocking about it — I mean they threw a no-hitter against us and it was really no problem. It’s weird. It’s almost like it didn’t happen, to be honest with you. I still really don’t have all the bits and pieces of that game.”

Munro, Saarloos, Lidge and Dotel all watched the final inning from the tunnel leading up to the visitor’s dugout. They burst onto the field as soon as the final out was made. They congratulated each other a little more jubilantly than the position players did and then gathered on the field for photo ops and postgame interviews. All except for Oswalt.

During the game, Oswalt had booked an appointment for early the next morning with a specialist in Philadelphia. A car was waiting for him to make the two-hour drive that night.

“I gave everyone a high five when they came in (to the clubhouse) and as soon as everybody got in I went straight to the car,” Oswalt says. While his teammates celebrated, Oswalt headed south on the Jersey Turnpike en route to the disabled list. He wouldn’t pitch again for nearly four weeks.

“It was bittersweet for me because I feel like I had the stuff to do it myself. I don’t even know, who did get the win that night?”

Great question, Roy.

The controversial ‘winning pitcher’

The first known combined no-hitter is the famous game in 1917 in which Boston left-hander Babe Ruth was ejected after walking the first batter of the game. Reliever Ernie Shore was on the mound when that baserunner was caught stealing and then went on to retire 26 batters in a row. For a time this was considered a perfect game, but that has since been negated by a rules change. However, Shore remained the winning pitcher in the game. In the other six combined no-hitters thrown between 1967 and 1991, the starting pitcher went at least five innings and was by rule the designated pitcher of record and got the win. In 1997, Pittsburgh’s Francisco Cordova threw nine no-hit innings in a scoreless tie, and reliever Ricardo Rincon threw one perfect inning. Rincon earned the win when the Pirates’ Mark Smith hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th.

In any ordinary game in which the starter fails to go five innings, as Oswalt did here, the designation of “winning pitcher” becomes the decision of that game’s official scorer. It is based on who he alone deems to be the most effective relief pitcher in the game. In any ordinary game, this is fairly simple and rarely controversial. This was no ordinary game.

In his fifth season as an official scorer for Major League Baseball games in New York, Howie Karpin began to recognize his conundrum around the sixth or seventh inning. None of the pitchers, obviously, had given up a hit. So who should be the winning pitcher?

“Lidge retired all six batters that he faced,” Karpin reasons. “He had the cleanest appearance really.”

Lidge found out while watching TV in the postgame celebration that he was named the winning pitcher.

“There’s no way Lidge should have gotten it,” Munro says. “Whatever, I don’t care, but I think it should have been either me or Saarloos. Saarloos pitched the fifth and I pitched the most (2 2/3 innings).”

“I’ve got a bone to pick with (Karpin) still to this day,” says Saarloos, who retired all four batters he faced.

In Karpin’s mind, Lidge pitched the more decisive part of the game.

“It was 4-0 when Lidge came in,” Karpin says. “You can argue that the Yankees were still within range.”


“After the game, a representative from Cooperstown asked me if I would sign my hat because I was the winning pitcher,” Lidge said. “At that point, Saarloos got a little more upset.” (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Saarloos had a case considering he took the game through the fifth inning, when a starter normally qualifies for the win.

“Everyone’s got an opinion,” Karpin says. “There’s like a hundred scorers here (in the press box) every night.”

But Munro, with as rough as his outing was, had a shaky case at best. Karpin glanced at a scorecard from the game.

“Munro had the three walks,” Karpin said. “Bring that up in a court of law, and see ya.”

Lidge was mocked by his fellow relievers at times for being a bit of a baseball nerd.

“He’s the big baseball junkie, stat rat and all that,” Munro says. “I never was really.”

So Munro and Saarloos grudgingly accepted that the historic significance of the win would best fit Lidge.

“After the game, a representative from Cooperstown asked me if I would sign my hat because I was the winning pitcher,” Lidge says. “At that point, Saarloos got a little more upset.”

“Well, shoot I pitched the fifth inning, that should be the pitcher of record,” Saarloos yelled. “They should authenticate my hat and put it in the Hall of Fame!”

“It was definitely never tense,” Lidge claims. “We were good buddies but it was just kind of funny because I think Saarloos wanted it pretty bad too.”

Saarloos again fell back on Lidge’s baseball nerdiness when asked what he might say to Karpin today.

“I would tell him, ‘Hey nice job, you picked the right guy, the baseball historian,’” Saarloos says. “(Lidge) actually deserves to have his hat in the Hall of Fame because he’s such a baseball nut and historian.”

Saarloos also is kind of glad he wasn’t the winning pitcher.

“I had a little pine tar underneath the bill of my cap and that might not have been good sitting in the Hall of Fame.”

The other clubhouse

As the victorious Astros celebrated their most unpredictable achievement, a cart was rolled into the clubhouse with six bottles of champagne on ice. They were courtesy of George Steinbrenner and the Yankees, they were told. But the truth is the champagne was ordered by Astros traveling secretary Barry Waters.

“We didn’t know that until after the fact,” Wagner says. “But we’re doing interviews and I’m going, ‘How gracious of the Yankees to bring us champagne!’”

Saarloos found out the truth from this reporter nearly 15 years later.

“Oh, no way!” Saarloos exclaimed. “I’ve been thinking this whole time, ‘Man, what a classy move by George Steinbrenner and the Yankees.’”


New York Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner arrives at Yankee Stadium for a meeting with manager Joe Torre before today’s game against the Houston Astros. Last night, the Yanks went hitless against six Astro pitchers. (Photo by Linda Cataffo/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in the Yankees clubhouse, players were looking at it as more of a personal failure than a “tip your cap” kind of game. After all, the last time they had been no-hit was in 1958 by future Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm.

“This is one of the worst games I’ve ever been involved in,” manager Joe Torre said that night.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Jeter, one week into his tenure as the newest captain of the Yankees. “We should be embarrassed. If you’re not embarrassed something’s wrong with you.”

After a decade and a half of perspective, Giambi could digest it a little differently.

“I just think guys were in shock and they couldn’t come up with another word,” Giambi says. “Six pitchers and we couldn’t squeak out a hit? But if you look back now at all those guys and start throwing those names out there, they were really good.”

“I’ve been on the other end of a no-hitter and it’s a bit frustrating,” Ausmus says. “I don’t know if there’s anything embarrassing about being no-hit by guys like Oswalt, Lidge, Dotel and Wagner. To me, those are the type of guys you’d think would have no-hit stuff on a given day.”

“I remember Torre saying by the time they got done with Saarloos it was ‘hard, harder and hardest.’” Lidge says.

But this was still five years before Lidge turned in a perfect season as closer for the World Champion Phillies. And while Wagner was one of the game’s dominant relievers, the Yankees weren’t throwing out bouquets that night, which was no surprise to the triumphant Astros.

“This didn’t happen to the Yankees and it sure as heck didn’t happen to them at Yankee Stadium,” Lidge says. “I do remember seeing some interviews after the game from their clubhouse and they looked like their dog just died. It looked noticeably depressing in their clubhouse.”

“You know what, dude, the Yankees cry a lot,” says Munro, the childhood Mets fan. “I got nothing to say about them. I think no matter what happened they’d be crying. The Yankees were always prima donnas and I still think that today.”

“I guess there’s a ton of excuses we could come up with, but the fact of the matter is they had (151) chances to get a hit and they couldn’t,” Wagner says. “When the dust settles it’s a no-hitter.”

“You have to tip your cap, they threw a no-hitter,” Giambi says. “It took six guys, but they threw a no-hitter. When something weird like that happens you can’t just throw it away. They did something pretty special. Six guys went out there and they all did their job. They got us out.”


New York Yankees’ Bubba Trammell heads to the dugout after striking out in the ninth inning against the Houston Astros. (Photo by James Keivom/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
15 years later

Some of the pitchers have different mementos, whether it’s a lineup card or a signed ball, a framed picture, or a newspaper clipping. The Hall of Fame has in its collection the hat signed by Lidge and two baseballs, one signed just by Lidge and the other by all six pitchers and Ausmus.

“My name is on the back of the ball so it’s in the back of the case,” Munro laughs. “Whatever, it’s all cool.”

But neither ball is the one that Wagner squeezed at first base for the final out. That ball belongs to Wagner, who wasn’t giving it up for anyone.

Astros equipment manager Dennis Laborio approached Wagner in the clubhouse.

“Drayton wants the ball,” Laborio said to Wagner, referring to Astros owner Drayton McLane, who was in attendance at Yankee Stadium that night.

“Well he’s not getting the ball,” Wagner told him.

Laborio wasn’t going to go back to the owner empty-handed. So Wagner walked over to a ball bag, grabbed a batting practice ball, and handed it to Laborio.

“Hey, there it is,” Wagner said.

“I’ve still got (the real one) at my house. I don’t know what they did with (the other one) but I know I’ve got that ball put up,” says Wagner. He says the ball is not signed or marked in any way but is absolutely the ball that he caught for the final out.

Baseball players can be known for their freakish recall. They can give you details about at-bats and pitch sequences years after the rest of us have forgotten. And that’s another reason this game is so unusual. The guys on the wrong end of history can’t tell you who threw the no-hitter at them.

Several Yankees in the dugout that night were asked through texts and emails if they could name all six pitchers.

“No chance.”

“No idea at all.”

“No clue.”

“Not all six.”

“I don’t remember any of them.”

Here is the refresher course:

Roy Oswalt pitched 13 years in the majors, finishing his career with a forgettable 0-6 mark with the 2013 Colorado Rockies. He works on his farm in Missouri and comes back to help the Astros as a spring training instructor. That night was his only career appearance at Yankee Stadium and it remains a bittersweet memory despite the heroics of his teammates.

“It was a great feat,” says Oswalt, now 40. He never did throw his own no-hitter.

“I threw a one-hitter against Colorado one time and I missed a ball that was back up the middle. Should have been an error on me but they gave him a hit. It went right under my glove, I don’t know why I didn’t catch it. And then I threw a one-hitter against Montreal one time and it was a swinging bunt. You know, just so many things have to go your way to throw a no-hitter.”

Pete Munro, now 42, pitched parts of five years in the majors, spending his final season with the Astros in 2004. A superintendent for a construction company in Brooklyn who occasionally gives private pitching lessons, his career record of 13-19 does not include the win he still thinks he had a case for that night at Yankee Stadium.

Kirk Saarloos pitched for parts of seven years, finishing up with the Oakland A’s in 2008. Saarloos, now 39, is the pitching coach at TCU, where he will occasionally tell his players about his history-making turn in the majors. Sometimes it helps him break the tension before a big game.

“Every once in a while I’ll be like, ‘Well, you know I threw a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium,’” Saarloos laughs. “They’re like, ‘Coach we’ve heard this one before. There were five other guys!’

“If only I was the winning pitcher…”


Houston Astros’ Kirk Saarloos delivers a pitch in relief against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Brad Lidge went on to become the closer on three pennant-winning teams and closed out the 2008 World Series for the Phillies. The cap he wore in that clinching game is also part of the archives in Cooperstown. Lidge, now 41, is also a baseball analyst for MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. He remembers the night of the no-hitter as being among the most exciting of his career.

“At that point in my career it just felt like one of the greatest possible accomplishments that could ever happen,” Lidge says. “I didn’t go to sleep that entire night. At four or five in the morning, New York reporters kept calling the hotel room and I kept answering. I was like ‘This is great!’”

Octavio Dotel went on to appear in over 750 games across 15 major league seasons for 13 teams, finishing up with the Tigers in 2013. He won a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 2011.

“It was a great moment,” Dotel says. “It was great to be there and be part of that no-hitter in New York. You see a lot of no-hitters in MLB, but I don’t think you see a lot with six pitchers.

“It was surprising, six guys had a no-hitter in New York against the Yankees. And the Yankees had an unbelievable lineup at that time. Of course I think about it, it was an amazing game and we had a great time.”

Dotel, now 44, does some broadcasting work for ESPN. When he pitched for the Yankees in 2006, none of his teammates brought up that night three years earlier.

Nathan Bland warmed up in the bullpen when Posada grounded out on a 3-0 changeup out of the zone. If Posada took ball four, Bland would have entered the game, possibly making it a seven-man no-hitter.

“Man that would’ve been great to get in and maybe throw a scoreless inning and be part of that,” Bland says. “But then I also might have gotten in and given up some hits and we wouldn’t be talking about this. I just had mixed feelings really. I was happy that we threw the no-hitter, but kind of bummed out that I didn’t get in to be part of it knowing that I was really only one pitch away from being in the ballgame.”

Bland didn’t make his major league debut until he was 28 in part because of two Tommy John surgeries. When he finally made it, he was in the majors for just eight weeks in May and June 2003.

Before he got sent down Bland was fined in kangaroo court, written up by Stone for not knowing the no-hitter was happening when Wagner got up to warm up in the ninth.

When his playing career ended in 2008 after stints in Mexico and Taiwan, Bland, now 43, went back to school and became a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. He also coaches part-time at Birmingham-Southern College.

Ricky Stone pitched six seasons in the majors. Between 2002 and 2003 he appeared in 143 games for the Astros. But he didn’t get into this game.

“Obviously if I would have gone into that game I’d have messed it all up,” Stone says.

He vividly remembers sitting in the bullpen for the final innings with Bland and Wagner, incredulous that Bland didn’t know what was going on. That Stone remembers any of it at all is quite miraculous.

“In 2008, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor,” Stone explains. “They removed the brain tumor from my head, it was the size of a lemon.”

The surgery and treatment that followed resulted in memory loss that has created big gaps in his mind.

“What I did in high school or growing up…it’s hard for me to remember,” Stone says. “It would have to be almost dramatic for me to remember what was going on. And that game — that was dramatic. I’ve got that stuck in my brain because I’ve told the story so many times.”

Stone, whose wife died of ovarian cancer in 2015, lives on disability with his two children in Ohio and receives support from B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), of which Lidge is a big supporter. Stone also makes regular fishing trips with Oswalt and two years ago spent Thanksgiving at Wagner’s house.

Billy Wagner pitched 16 years and racked up 422 saves. He made seven All-Star teams and pitched for seven different playoff teams, including four with the Astros.

He looks back fondly on that night in 2003.

“You’re dealing with six pitchers. It’s unique in that fashion in itself. What are the chances of all the pitchers that come in having the luck on their side and all that to not give up a hit? What are the real chances of that?

“I was never a part of another bullpen that was as dominating as that bullpen.”

Wagner has borderline Hall of Fame numbers but hasn’t received much support. In fact, he hasn’t come close to the 75 percent vote percentage needed for election, sitting between 10-12 percent in his three years on the ballot.

Wagner was asked what he’d say if the Hall of Fame called and asked for the real final out ball.

“I’d tell them it would be a two-part deal,” Wagner says. “I’ll bring it when I go in with it.”


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WBT

WBT 20397

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Posted

Great article, thanks for posting.

Quote

“You know what, dude, the Yankees cry a lot,” says Munro, the childhood Mets fan. “I got nothing to say about them. I think no matter what happened they’d be crying. The Yankees were always prima donnas and I still think that today.”

Still redass, I like it.

Quote

“In 2008, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor,” Stone explains. “They removed the brain tumor from my head, it was the size of a lemon.”

The surgery and treatment that followed resulted in memory loss that has created big gaps in his mind.

“What I did in high school or growing up…it’s hard for me to remember,” Stone says. “It would have to be almost dramatic for me to remember what was going on. And that game — that was dramatic. I’ve got that stuck in my brain because I’ve told the story so many times.”

Stone, whose wife died of ovarian cancer in 2015, lives on disability with his two children in Ohio and receives support from B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), of which Lidge is a big supporter. Stone also makes regular fishing trips with Oswalt and two years ago spent Thanksgiving at Wagner’s house.
 

And man, that was a downer

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BornOrange

BornOrange 1441

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A lot of great quotes from that article:

Quote

And Billy was the ‘jefe’ in the bullpen.

Quote

But when the bullpen phone rang, Bland looked up to see Wagner had already started to warm up.

“There was no doubt, I was going in the game regardless,” says Wagner, who had recently reached the 200-save milestone. He wasn’t about to let someone else grab his share of history.

“That’s vintage Billy Wagner,” Saarloos says. “’Dude, I’m the closer. I don’t care what the score is, I’m coming in to finish this thing off, that’s my job.’”

Quote

“Wow, you guys get excited about beating these Yankees,” Blum recalls hearing Kent say.

To which Wagner replied, “You dumbass, we just threw a no-hitter.”

Quote

Saarloos also is kind of glad he wasn’t the winning pitcher.

“I had a little pine tar underneath the bill of my cap and that might not have been good sitting in the Hall of Fame.”

Quote

Brad Lidge went on to become the closer on three pennant-winning teams and closed out the 2008 World Series for the Phillies. 

Quote

“Drayton wants the ball,” Laborio said to Wagner, referring to Astros owner Drayton McLane, who was in attendance at Yankee Stadium that night.

“Well he’s not getting the ball,” Wagner told him.

Laborio wasn’t going to go back to the owner empty-handed. So Wagner walked over to a ball bag, grabbed a batting practice ball, and handed it to Laborio.

“Hey, there it is,” Wagner said.
 

 

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DallasGatr

DallasGatr 216

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Thanks UTFight. That was a great read. And I had no idea that no-hitter meant so much to those guys. Damn what I’d give for a back end bullpen even approaching that one. (Of course I’ll take everything else that is today’s Astros.)


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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8052

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1 hour ago, DallasGatr said:

(Of course I’ll take everything else that is today’s Astros.)


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Generally agree. Although with CC back, I'd put Biggio in LF and Marwin on the pine. For that matter, I also suspect Bagwell could DH here and there.  

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