Considering they are currently toting a record of 33-69 and are a solid 21 games out of first place in the NL Central, it would be tough for the Houston Astros to blame a loss on anyone but themselves. Rarely does a baseball team get a chance to blame U2 for their misfortunes, but if the opportunity presents itself you might as well strike.
The Cardinals hosted a U2 concert at Busch Stadium recently while St. Louis was on a road trip. As a result, the stadium’s grass had to be torn up and replaced with a new surface from Colorado that was installed at night during cool temperatures. It was known beforehand that the new surface could be a little tricky and play a little quicker than usual, but the Astros were still caught off guard. Hunter Pence fell running in on a fly ball that became a triple and Michael Bourn fell trying to field a ball in center field. Jose Altuve fell rounding first on a single and Jason Bourgeois had a ball skip away from him, forcing an error.
“I didn’t expect it to be tough until I fell down,” Pence said. “We knew there was a new sod and ground balls were going to be tougher. We really didn’t expect all the slipping to go down.”
“I slipped and I could tell you didn’t have a lot of tracking out there, so you couldn’t really plant,” Bourn added. “If you try to plant good, you’ll end up falling.
I had no clue. It was our first time playing on it since it was put in, so I just tried to do the best I can out there. It’s real hard to keep your feet underneath you. You have to kind of do the best you can on it.”
Manager Brad Mills later added that the field conditions “cost (the team) a little.” It must be nice to have an excuse for your teams horrendous performance, even if only for a night.
