Houston eats Huston for dinner. Angels blown up by Astros, lose 3-2.

This was a masterful baseball game for 7 1/3 innings. The Angels had pushed up a 1-0 lead they held since the 1st when Mike Trout opened the game with his 8th home run of the season. Kole Calhoun singled home the irrepressible Johnny Giovatella, who had doubled to open the frame. Chris Iannetta had walked, and was now standing on second base.

So we had a 2-0 lead, 1 out, runners on first and second, Mike Trout coming to bat. The Astros had managed only a single hit on another brilliant outing by Hector Santiago and a strong 8th inning by Joe Smith. Huston Street would be on the mound in the 9th.

Looking good.

But then...

Trout flied out to deep center field and, inexplicably, Iannetta stranded his own ass on second. No advance. No opening up the bases from an easy force play. Dumb. Two outs.

Pujols then worked his at-bat and forced the count to a pitch he wanted, and he smashed a hard grounder to the gap in the left side of the infield. Not to denied, Iannetta dashed over and, unbelievably, ran into the frickin' ball!!! Now we are in STUPID territory. Three outs.

Flip to Street. Up come the Astros, still down 0-2.

Single.

Single.

Fly out.

Single.

Single.

Walk.

RBI infield force out.

Wild pitch.

Strike out.

And just like that, we had rushed past the land of the stupid and into the crevasse of sheer idiocy.

Down 2-3 now, the Angels countered with Matt Joyce (.153), David Freese (.213) and Erick Aybar (.222)

Fail.

Loss.

Turn the page. Then burn the book.