That uneasy feeling Cecil Cooper felt brewing in the pit of his stomach during his first game as interim manager of the Astros on Tuesday might not have been butterflies. Cooper hoped to see improved situational hitting and better pitching, but his managerial debut left him to digest more of the same problems that cost manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura their jobs a day earlier. The streaking St. Louis Cardinals jumped on starter Woody Williams early and proceeded to pound out 16 hits to whack the Astros 7-0 in the opener of a three-game series at Minute Maid Park.
Well, that certainly worked out well, eh? Just 24 hours after seeing Manager Phil Garner and GM Tim Pupura fired by Drayton McLane, the Houston Astros went out and laid an egg, sleepwalking their way through a 7-0 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals. No, it wasn’t Cecil Cooper’s fault, but her certainly deserved better in his debut as interim manager.
The question now becomes not so much what the Astros will do for the remainder of the season- they’re not going to the playoffs, anyway- but how the fans will react. At game time last night, the stands looked almost empty, even the seats behind home plate, which is very unusual. The announced attendance was 37,915, which really only means the Astros might have sold that many tickets. There’s no way that man butts were actually in the seats at Minute Maid.
It may seem a bit early to be playing out the string, but it appears that’s exactly what the Astros have decided to do. Way to show some pride, guys….
