Astros go to SF within touching distance of .500

Thanks to some excellent starting pitching over the last two weeks the Astros are in within a whisker of .500. The NL Central now has 5 teams within three games of each other. Yesterday afternoon was no exception as Wandy Rodriguez, and a swarm of bees finished off the Padres. Houston left San Diego having taken 3 of 4, and had Chris Sampson not blown Mike Hampton's effort, they might have swept the Friars.

Over the last 12 games, Houston starting pitching is 6-1 with a 2.19 ERA. Since June 1st, the Astros are 18-11 having outscored opponents 122 to 104. After starting the season with an awful run differential (especially their inability to score runs, they've vastly improved. And although they've still allowed more runs than they've scored this season (327-345) it is not a massive gap. 

2 of 3 from the Giants would be great, and I could see that happening with a rookie going for SF in the opener (Tim Lincecum is an overmatch for Russ Ortiz), but the finale is the one that jumps out at you, Randy Johnson against Roy Oswalt. 

Hampton and Moehler shine, goodbye to Backe

And now Brandon Backe belongs to that long list of starting pitching prospects over the 2000s that just didn't work. Along with Hernandez, Wade Miller, and those further down the scale, the Brandon Duckworths and Tim Reddings of this world, Backe had huge promise, but just never put it together. Injuries have derailed what in 2004 looked like a shining career.

Three magical performances still stand out if Backe will never pitch again for the Astros. 

1: Playing third fiddle to Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens in 2004, Backe stepped in to pitch the final game of the season with the Astros needing to maintain the one game lead over the Giants. Clemens had been slated to start the 162nd game of the season but was scratched just hours before gametime. Backe stepped in and the Astros clinched the NL wildcard. 

2. Probably the most memorable Astros games of modern times, in the 2004 NLCS, Brandon Backe squared off against Woody Williams and the Cardinals in game 5. Both would hold their respective opponents scoreless, and it would take a Jeff Kent 3 run moon shot to left field to end the game after Isringhausen walked Berkman in front of Kent.

3. Down 3-0 in their first ever world series, Backe pitched seven shutout innings only to see the White Sox take the game later on. 

OK, lets talk here and now. Great start by Hampton against the Padres but unfortunatley Sampson couldn't hold on to the lead and the Astros dropped that one 4-3. Then Moehler comes back the next day and pitches a solid game, with the Astros offense benefitting from some shoddy defensive play from the Friars. Wandy Rodriguez will go in the finale, and hopefully it will be the Astros taking 3 of 4 at Petco. At 37-39 Houston are still right on the heels of the Reds and Cubs. Hopefully it stays that way. 

Huge win for Astros as Oswalt bests Padres

On a night when British, and certainly my interests where on a certain center court in south west London, the Astros got a superlative performance from their ace, the 133 game winner Roy Oswalt after a heartbreaking loss Sunday night.

Bidding to become the first British champion since Fred Perry back in 1936 at Wimbledon, Andy Murray catapulted himself into the quarter finals to face Juan Carlos Ferrero, a man he bested easily at the Queens club two weeks earlier, after besting Stanislas Wawrinka in a five set epic. The match, played with the center court roof closed and the lights on, was the latest finish to a Wimbledon match ever, finishing just after 10.30pm. As Murray smashed a forehand winner down the line to win it, 12 million households had tuned in, out of a population of roughly 60 million.

Anyway back to baseball. I don't know what Cecil Cooper said to Oswalt before he went out last night, but he must've been happy that he gave the bullpen a night off, as the right hander two hit the Padres, en route to a complete game victory, squaring his season record at 4-4. Oswalt was phenomenal retiring his last 18 batters, and his second CG in three outings.

The Astros, with the loss on Sunday, stay two games out of .500, at 36-38, four games back from the leading Brewers, but a half-game behind Chicago, and a game behind Cincy.  It seems the Astros will go with a six man rotation, with Mike Hampton coming back to the fold. And it seems it is goodbye to Brandon Backe and Wesley Wright at least for now. 

Astros taking care of business

The Astros certainly did that, taking their third game in a row behind a dazzling performance by Felipe Paulino on his return from the DL. His effort was matched by an all round solid offensive performance, all the way down the lineup. In beating the Tigers 8-1 every starter got either an RBI or a run.

Going into the series finale with Detroit, the Astros are 35-37, just a half game behind Chicago and Cincinnati, a feat in itself for Cecil Cooper's team. 

Looking through some of the pieces on the Astros, I saw that Paulino's run support this season (before last night's game) was 1.65 per 9 innings, that's worse than 2005 when Clemens was pitching. I still have bad memories from that year and THIS GAME topped them all (the Astros were shutdown for 10 innings by the mercurial Mark Mulder). Actually in 2005 unbelievably, the Astros still gave Clemens 3.43 runs per 9 innings. Obviously it must have been hard for Paulino in his starts, even if he were pitching well to suffer that sort of offensive support. There's no doubt Paulino's got the stuff to be a very good major league pitcher, fitting in behind Oswalt and Rodriguez, all he needs is time and nurturing (I make him sound like a pot-plant?). 

Other figures for June, Lance Berkman's splits are actually quite good (.308/.439/.615), and that amounts to a 1.054 OPS. The Astros are 15-9 in the calender month of June, 13 of Chris Sampson's last 14 appearances have been scoreless, his only blemish being the 6-4 win against the D-backs. Between them in June, Arias and Fulchino have allowed 1 earned run. All three of them combined have a 1.03 ERA in June. 

At the moment the Astros don't have a too bad team. The Astros have their four mashers in Berkman, Lee, Tejada and Pence, speed in Bourn, but the peripheral guys like Matsui, Keppinger, Blum and Rodriguez need to do their part. With a healthy Valverde and Paulino the Astros core pitching looks a lot better. Cooper just needs to get to that all-star break .500 or above. That's what's needed. With the teams coming up, that's achievable for Houston this year. Although they will have their work cut out against Detroit's Edwin Jackson facing off against the Astros' Russ Ortiz.

Around the majors: Pujols hit another two bombs last night to top the Twins, I don't know why people aren't treating him like the next Barry Bonds. If I'm on the mound, with a runner in scoring position, I'm putting him on base. 

astrobrit@googlemail.com 

Berkman, Astros find redemption in finale

After being outclassed by Greinke in the series opener, and dropping a game they really should have won on Wednesday, the Astros came out and took the finale Thursday, behind a solid bullpen effort and two 2-run home runs from Lance Berkman.

True, the Astros didn't do enough against Luke Hochevar, but that has been the case for the Astros against middle of the rung pitching all season. 

With Geary, Valverde and Brocail all having injuries throughout the season, the bullpen has been driven by key performances from three guys Alberto Arias, Jeff Fulchino and most of all Chris Sampson.

The Astros now sit at 33-37, three good series away from reaching .500.  They host Detroit this weekend, before playing at San Diego before heading on to San Fran, then they host the Pirates and the Nationals before the all-star break kicks in. The Astros could easily pick up four games over that stretch of 18 games. No-one in the NL Central is going anywhere in a hurry, the leading Cardinals have a mere .541 winning percentage.

Astros drop first game to the Twins.
Rather than moan about the game, which was rather depressing in its own humdrum way (I mean we're only 3 games behind the almighty Chicago Cubs, supposed winners of 100 games this season) I thought I'd post something to lighten the mood. Old sckool comedy, and before you ask, yes I have just watched The Rain Man.

Judgement Day for Backe

Brandon Backe will toe the rubber for Houston as they take on the Rangers, starting 7.05 CT tonight, in place of Mike Hampton, the latest Astro pitcher to be placed on the DL.

After yesterday's loss Cecil Cooper called a team meeting, after a game the Astros probably should have won, but dropped 5-4 to the Rangers. Sloppy defensive play, and offensive lapses, not to mention the 1-9 with Runners in Scoring Position was too much for the skipper to handle. The Astros are now 0-5 against Texas this season, a comprehensive defeat in the race for the Golden Boot. If you take those game away, the Astros are .500 on the season 29-29 against teams not called the Texas Rangers. That is quite astounding considering the Astros are already being treated as nearly-rans. 

Our offense just has not clicked into fifth gear at all this season. There are always one or two good offensive performances, but never several in the same game. They can't get the big inning, home runs always seem to be solo shots (Pence and Lee both hit solo round trippers last night). Five runs in two games at Arlington is not great.

Our current rotation now is Oswalt, Rodriguez, Moehler, Ortiz and Backe. After so much promise, and so much disappointment during Backe's career, this season might just be his last chance saloon. I'm not 100% positive on this one, because I'm not sure if 2003 or 2004 was Backe's rookie season (he pitched 44 2/3 innings of relief for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2003 before being traded to Houston), but I believe Backe is eligable for free agency in 2009. Apart from the short stint in 2004 where he provided at least some replacement for Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt on the mound, he has not lived up to expectation. 

Pudge now sits at the top of games caught, passing Carlton Fisk and Bob Boone. Quite an impressive feat. 

The Astros just need to turn up their intensity, but its diffcult when your in a division where the other five clubs are above or around .500. The Astros proved that they can tough out games, as the two 2-1 victories over the Cubs earlier in the month showed.  A victory tonight would be very good. 

Astros Take series from D-backs

While everyone else has been enjoying (or not enjoying) the wonders of interleague play. After a month's hiatus, which I once again apologise for, I'm back to writing about the Astros. The passion had drained out of my writing and I needed a break to refresh myself for the rest of the season.

Our team is resembling something of a jigsaw puzzle of late, with Paulino down to injury, along with Blum's day-to-day and Matsui being on the DL. The most surprising thing lately is that after a blazing start to the season Wandy Rodriguez got roasted in his last three starts. 

The Astros seem on the up in June, starting it by three straight victories over the Rockies (who nabbed the finale, the first of ten straight wins). After the string of seven straight losses in May, the Astros sit rather nicely at 29-32 just FOUR GAMES behind the leading Cardinals and Brewers. 

How about that Bourn catch against Micah Hoffpauer? Shades of Carlos Beltran (although Beltran's catch against Young at Arlington was truly ridiculous). 

More updates to follow. 

Oh look he's all better

I surmise from this article that Jose Valverde aint gonna be pitching any time soon. What's happening now reminds me of 2004, when at the all-star break, Gerry Hunsicker and Phil Garner probably looked at their bullpen and said, shit we better sort this out.

Apart from Brad Lidge, we had guys like side armer Kirk Bullinger, Mike Gallo (!) etc.  Then they coaxed Russ Springer out of 'retirement', and acquired Darren Oliver (although he didn't do much)Dan Wheeler, and Dave Weathers while promoting good old Chad Qualls from AAA. Now that was affirmative action. Those were the days, back when Lidge had a 14.9 SO/9. 

Now we're in a similar situation, but all we've seen so far is the acquisition of Brendan Donnely. Alberto Arias and Jeff Fulchino need to step up the plate, because Valverde and Brocail won't be back for a while. We have Donnely down at AAA, and Chad Paronto if we need some arms in our bullpen, and why not carry 13 pitchers, cause the bats on our bench are doing nothing. And here's me harking back to 2004 again when we'd have Orlando Palmeiro, Mike Lamb and Jose Viscaino on the bench. 

Wandy works his magic once again

The Astros won again under Wandy Rodriguez, snapping the Brewers seven game winning streak. Rodriguez's only blemish was a Cameron solo home run in the fourth, the first home run Rodriguez has allowed in 89 1/3 innings, the longest by any Astro since 1989-1990 when Juan Agosto went 91 2/3 innings. Rodriguez lowered his ERA to 1.83 picking up his fifth win of the season. The win was the leftie's fourth straight. 

A Berkman double, a Tejada solo shot, and a Pence 2 run double put the Astros up 4-0 early, even if a 'Snafu' by Cecil Cooper in the first saw Kaz Matui called out when the Astros skipper got his lineup card mixed up. A similar thing happened a couple of days ago when the Rays put two third basemen in their lineup, with Andy Sonnastine batting for Evan Longoria.

The Astros sent Alberto Arias back out for the ninth after recording a scoreless eighth, but Cooper was forced to bring in Chris Samspon after the first three runners reached base in the inning. 

However, while Wandy Rodriguez is establishing himself as a high end pitcher, you wonder what  you are going to get from Hampton and Paulino/whoever is in the no.5 spot. Brian Moehler has steadied himself, and will give you an average/good start most times out. 

Lance Berkman has had his problems, but Cecil Cooper should consider sending Kaz Matsui down the order. Matsui has a .234 BA and a .298 OBP on the season, and just 6 steals to 3 CS. 

Jake Peavy to the White Sox? Hmmm...

The Astros send Roy Oswalt to the hill looking for a series win. Coming into the game last night the Astros had allowed the most runs in the NL Central, with the Brewers allowing the least. Meanwhile the Brew crew has scored the most per game, with the Astros scoring the least bar Pittsburgh.