Bees: The buzz of baseball.
(c) Associated Press
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Geoff Blum homered and drove in four while Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven innings of one-run baseball in a 7-2 victory over San Diego. But all that was upstaged by a 52-minute delay for a bee swarm that had gathered inside a ballgirl's jacket down the left field line. "Thousands" of bees were estimated to have swarmed Petco Park, causing a hazard for players, umpires and fans.
A local bee expert came to the field after a long delay. He had the needed suit along with the frozen spray that drops the bees in their tracks in an instant. Fans applauded as the bee expert, kept on speed dial by the Padres' groundskeeper, doused the jacket and chair with spray then gathered up the frozen bees and left as play resumed.
The win was important for the Astros because they had at last overcome their hurdle of losing whenever they were two games under .500. Thursday's win left Houston just one game below even par (38-39) and will end the day no worse than four games out of first and three games back in the loss column in the NL Central.
Felipe Paulino (2-4) will try to expand the six-game streak of quality Houston starts Friday night in San Francisco against rookie Ryan Sadowski (1-0), making his second start of the year. The start time is 9:15 Central so bee prepared for a long night.
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