I think I’m going to make a habit of posting these “live recaps” of games that I attend at Minute Maid Park. They’re not actually live, per say, but more of a reflection of my time spent at the ballpark for a certain game.

As I noted earlier today, I made the last second decision to go to the game this afternoon. Khalil had tickets and I was jealous, so I decided to go down and at least see if there was anything available. I had tried Ticketmaster and even StubHub, and no tickets were available at either site, which is a rarity.

I thought the game started at 7pm, so I’d planned on leaving work around 4:30 to make the 20 minute trek over to the ballpark and see if there were any tickets available. At about 4:20, I browsed to Astros.com and discovered that the game actually started at 6, so I immediately left work and headed downtown. It took awhile to find parking and I ended up paying $20 for a spot. I figured that by the time I waited around for a free spot to open, the scalpers would have sold all their tickets. I parked in a lot close to the stadium and asked the attendant if I could go to the “white tents” (where ticket sellers are) and see if there were any tickets available. He told me yes, so I promised to come back and pay my parking fee if I was able to get a ticket.

I ended up buying a field box seat for $40, which is exactly $1 more than they sell for regularly. I had fantastic seats. I walked back over to the parking lot, paid my fee, and then went to the stadium.

The club had a whole bunch of opening day festivities going on, including a few paratroopers jumping into the stadium. One man simply must have been going around 30mph when he landed; I feared for his life. Milo Hamilton introduced both teams, and then Jack Ingram sang the National Anthem. 

And with that, it was time to open the home season! Here’s my notes from the game:

• If Wandy Rodriguez pitched as well on the road as he does at home, he’d be one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball and the ace of our staff. Rodriguez pitched 7 1/3 innings, giving up only 3 hits and zero runs while striking out 7. He was utterly dominating, and I still cannot understand why he pitches so well at home and so badly on the road. Maybe the club really does need to take his home furniture on the road with him. He baffled the Cardinals tonight and baffled me with the home/road difference in his pitching.
• Man, this team can hit some bombs. Lance Berkman hit an absolute bomb to center field that was never in doubt, and Carlos Lee followed it up with a shot that very nearly cleared the ballpark wall in left field. J.R. Towles, a guy I think is going to be the best hitting catcher in baseball over the next few years, hit one in the next inning. And of course, Miguel Tejada hit a 2 run walkoff in the bottom of the ninth to give us the win.
• Michael Bourn is fast. Like, really fast. I think the only way an opposing catcher is going to throw him out is if he overslides the bag, which he has a tendency to do. He stole two more bases tonight, and on the first one it looked like he was going to slide into left field. He makes it look easy and brings a brand new dynamic to the Astros that they haven’t had in 15 years or more, since before Craig Biggio’s legs got old and creaky.
• I hope tonight wasn’t an indicator of what we can expect from Jose Valverde for the rest of the season. I don’t think it is, but it still worries me that he gave up three runs to a team that had barely managed to get on base the rest of the night.
• Tejada is doing a fantastic job as a defensive shortstop. I expected a gigantic drop from Adam Everett to Tejada as far as the glove is concerned, but he has made some fantastic and difficult plays in the first 8 games. His bat gives him a huge edge over Everett overall. My only complaint with the trade when it happened was losing Luke Scott, and he’s got a .538 batting average for the Orioles this season. No way he can maintain that pace, but I think he’s going to be a great player and we may end up regretting his loss much more than we expected.
• And lastly, I just wanted to point out that Albert Pujols is a gigantic, gigantic beast of a human. He looks like a pro wrestler. Seriously. He hit a pop fly tonight that would have been just outside the infield for everyone else, but because he’s Albert Pujols and he’s ungodly strong, it went all the way to the wall, where Carlos Lee grabbed it. A 314 foot pop fly that missed being a homer by about 2 feet? That dude is packing some punch, but we already knew that.