fear the mighty Royals
Well, despite some reports that Kansas City is one of the worst teams ever, they're clearly a juggernaut. Scott Elarton opened the game with 5 perfect innings and the mighty Royals went on to win 7-2. Craig Biggio had the Astros only 2 runs batted in, but he did not get hit by a pitch.
Tonight the Astros face rookie pitcher Bobby Keppel in his 6th career appearance. He has not yet hit a batter in the majors, but he's only face 109. Jeff Brantley plunked Biggio on June 17, 1998 (and proceeded to blow a 3 run lead in the bottom of the 9th). Oscar Villarreal hit Biggio with a pitch on June 17, 2003.
Tomorrow, the Astros will see the familiar face of Brandon Duckworth. Duckworth spent the last two seasons with the Astros, hitting 5 batters. He has hit 28 batters in his career, but has never plunked Biggio. He hasn't hit anybody yet this season.
Duckworth could become the 13th pitcher who had previously been a teammate of Biggio's to hit him with a pitch joining Ryan Bowen, Danny Darwin, Pete Harnisch, Xavier Hernandez, Jeff Juden, Darryl Kile, Mark Portugal, Willie Blair, Brian Moehler, Dave Veres, Ron Villone, and Pedro Astacio. Astacio plunked Biggio on June 18, 2001, and pitched 4 games for the Astros later that year. (He plunked Biggio again after leaving the Astros.)
3 Comments:
So is Astacio the only pitcher to have a Biggio plunk sandwiched between two stints as a Biggio teammate?
Well, it wasn't a "plunk" but Biggio did get smacked in the back by a Chris Burke foul ball while he was on third base in the bottom of the 7th during the Sunday Royals game.
Yeah, the ball still finds him, but not so often while he's in the batters box recently.
And DM, Astacio only had one stint in Houston, so he's the only player who had a stint with the Astros sandwiched between plunkings. But Danny Darwin is the one who had the plunk sandwiched between to stints in Houston. He played for the Astros from 88-90, then plunked Biggio in '96 before being traded back to the Astros that same year. Astacio and Darwin both plunked Biggio and played for the Astros in the same season.
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