Another solid performance last night. Glad to see Pence and Lee go deep. Tonight should be a fun matchup to watch with Carpenter v Oswalt. These first two weeks after the All-Star break will be the determining factor to the rest of the Astros' season. The home stand is huge, but next week is equally as important with seven games in seven days on the road against the Cubs and Cards. The Astros could be down by 6 or up by 4 (and anywhere in between) on August 3. Stay tuned...
Wandy with another solid start. I wish they would have saved a few of those runs for tonight for Roy. It would be nice if they could shore up the middle relief some and pick up another solid starter. That would give me a little more confidence in this pitching staff.
Any chance ol' Drayton makes a push for a front line starter a la the Randy Johnson move a decade ago? BBTN thinks Cliff Lee and Roy Halliday are longshot possibilities. ESPN BBTN Methinks the Stros sit on their hands over the next week.
I'd give up anybody but the 3 or 4 top players for Halliday. He'd make the difference between a contender and a winner overall.
How sweep it is. Sweeping any series is very cool. Sweeping the Cards when they are in first place is fan-tastic.
i think they will make no moves. Honestly, i don't think this team is just one player away from competeing. The starting rotation needs a lot. It is nice to see role players stepping up. But they are role players. Streaky success at best. I was prepared for a season like the Nationals are currently having, so this has been a nice surprise; but i don't hold any illusions about them making the playoffs, even though they are only 1 game out of first right now.
Berkman on the 15 day disabled list is not going to help over the next two weeks. It seems like he was starting to get into a groove and when he does that good things happen. Oh well, best to have him healthy for August and September.
and the cards just got holliday while the stros sit on their *** and put berkman on the DL. I'm sure uncle mclane thinks they can "win with what they have".
you complain about "Uncle Drayton" not wanting to make a move, but you probably also complain about the Astros giving up Ben Zobrist. The only people in the minors we have of value are Jason Castro at Double-A and the pitching studs at Class A. I'm not willing to give any of those guys up at this point. Never mind, that to get Halladay, you'd probably have to give up some of those guys AND Wandy. that's how ridiculous the Blue Jays asking price has been.
After the 3 runs in the 1st it looked like Houston was well on its way to win another series but then the pitching fell apart for the 2nd day in a row. I guess 2 games out of first is not bad. Houston can certainly take care of business with 4 games against the now 1st place Cubs and 3 against 2nd place Cards, all on the road. Wandy & Roy should hold their own but who knows what kind of pitching we'll get after that.
The 13 inning game on Monday and Oswalt leaving in the 2nd inning with an injury on Tuesday was not the way the Astros' pitching staff wanted to start a tough road trip against the 1st and 2nd place teams in their division. The Cubs have absolutely clobbered them the last two games. This weekend look for the Cards to pick up where the Cubs left off.
