An exercise in screamility

I watched the Astros play against the Braves Saturday on Channel 26, our local Fox affiliate.

I know, I know. I said in this post that they wouldn't be shown again on local television until August. Well, Fox decided to sneak a Saturday game in on me. It looks like they might have another one scheduled for the 15th against the Giants, too.

The Astros started out the season 0-8, but then won 8 out of the next 10 games, surprising everybody at first but little by little starting to get their fans' hopes up, at one very brief point even enjoying second place in the National League's Central division. Currently, tho, we're in the midst of another losing streak ... six games at this point.

Arizona is coming in for a four-game set beginning at Minute Maid Park this evening. They are on kind of a downward slide at present, but don't worry, Diamondbacks. Your fortunes are about to turn completely around. How much they'll turn around is anybody's guess, but I can't imagine us losing ten in a row, can you? How dreadful that would be!

I've been trying to think of words to describe this team. The best I can come up with is a kind of slogan ... "The turnaround kids" ... meaning, if you're on a losing streak, come and play the Astros. We'll turn that skid around for you! We did it for the Reds and then the Braves.

I want all of you to know, btw, that I watched every pitch of every inning Saturday. I wanted to have a visual of that game clearly in my mind. Actually, it was a pretty good game until the bottom of the fifth, when we made two costly errors, allowing the Braves to score three unearned runs. It went downhill from there ... a few mental errors, lack of timely hitting and a missed run-and-hit signal later, the final score was good guys 1, bad guys 10. Ugly!

"Screamility" = a combination of scream and futility. It wouldn't have been at all appropriate for frivolity to appear in this post. Those guys don't look like they're having any fun at all!