Okay, so I decided I wanted to really follow the Houston Astros vs Pittsburgh Pirates game closely today, specifically keeping an eye on the player stats myself. It’s something I like doing sometimes, gives you a different feel for the game, you know?
Getting Started
First thing, I got myself set up. Didn’t need anything fancy. Just grabbed my trusty notebook and a pen. I thought about using a spreadsheet on my laptop, but sometimes pen and paper just feels right, more involved. I opened up the game feed on my tablet, made sure the stream was working okay. Had the volume up just enough to hear the commentators but not so loud it’d distract me from noting stuff down.
I sketched out a basic layout in my notebook. Just simple columns for each team. I planned to track the main stuff for batters: at-bats, runs, hits, RBIs. And for pitchers: innings pitched, strikeouts, walks, earned runs. Nothing too crazy, just the core stats to get a good picture.
Tracking During the Game
Alright, game on. As the first inning got going, I was ready. When the leadoff hitter for the Pirates came up, I marked down his first at-bat. It went pretty smoothly at first. A groundout here, a strikeout there. Easy enough to track. Then the Astros came up. I paid close attention to guys like Altuve and Alvarez. When one of them got a hit, I quickly jotted it down under the ‘H’ column next to their name (had to quickly write names down as they came up).
It got a bit trickier when things got busy, like runners on base, multiple runs scoring in an inning. You gotta be quick! There was one inning, maybe the 4th or 5th, where the Astros loaded the bases. Man, my pen was flying! Trying to track the hits, who scored, who got the RBI, and update the pitcher’s stats all at once. I definitely had to pause and replay a second or two on the stream once or twice just to be sure I got it right.
- Hits (H)
- Runs (R)
- Runs Batted In (RBI)
- At-Bats (AB)
- Strikeouts (K – for pitchers and batters)
- Walks (BB – for pitchers)
- Innings Pitched (IP)
- Earned Runs (ER)
Watching the pitchers was interesting too. I kept a running tally of strikeouts for the starters. You could really see when one pitcher was cruising versus when they started to struggle. Keeping track of the earned runs helps see who really caused the damage.
Key Stuff I Noticed
There were a few things that stood out just from manually tracking. I noticed one of the Pirates hitters seemed to be having a rough day, lot of strikeouts next to his name in my notes. On the flip side, one of the Astros players, maybe Bregman, seemed to be hitting everything hard, even the outs felt loud. Didn’t check the official stats yet, but that was my impression just watching and writing.
The pitching duel, especially early on, was fun to track side-by-side. Seeing those ‘K’ marks add up for both starters showed how tight the game was initially. Then seeing the walks and earned runs start creeping up for one of them told the story of when the game started to shift.
After the Whistle
Once the final out was made, I took a look over my messy notes. Added up the totals for each player I tracked. It’s always satisfying to see the final lines, even if they’re scribbled in a notebook. It wasn’t perfect, I might have missed an official scoring change or something minor.
Later, I quickly pulled up the official box score online. Compared it to my notes. Hey, not too bad! Got most of the main stuff right. Maybe off by one RBI somewhere or miscounted an at-bat, but overall, pretty close. It felt good doing it myself though.
So yeah, that was my little project for the Astros vs Pirates game. It takes focus, sure, but it’s a cool way to get deeper into a single game. Definitely makes you appreciate how much is happening on every single play. Might do it again for another game soon.
