GAMES 6-7: At this Point, Let's Go for a Record...

GAME 6 - April 11: Phillies 2, Astros 1
GAME 7 - April 12: Cardinals 5, Astros 0

The last time that the Astros opened a season with such a dismal string of losses was 1983 - the summer that I moved away from Texas with my husband and two sons, ages 4 and 10 months. Those two sons are now married men, an architect and lawyer respectively, who live in NY, cheer for the Yankees*, and pity me for my loyalty to the Astros. After starting with 9 consecutive losses, the Astros went on to eke out a pretty nice 1983 season, with an 85-77 record, third in the NL Western Division.

Fast forward to 2010, and here we are just 3 losses away from passing that landmark of terrible season starts. Not that I'm wishing for more losses - they are disheartening to watch live, and I just can't force myself to watch a loss after the fact on the mlb.tv archive. Especially a shutout like yesterday's 5-0 loss to our erstwhile foe, the Cardinals. But if we're going to lose 9, then let's break through '83, lose a nice round 10 to start the season, and then ...  go on to win the pennant. Kind of a condensed version of 2005's 15-30 season start.

On the other hand, 10 consecutive losses would mean digging out from 10 games under .500. It's a deep hole. Although the 1983 Astros ended up with a winning record, they didn't end up in the playoffs. That first couple of weeks killed their chances. Had the Astros started the season strongly in '83 - say 6-3, instead of 0-9 -- they would have tied the division leading Dodgers.

I just want to clarify that I am not advocating going all-out for record breaking in this statistical category. We aren't looking to top the 1988 Orioles' 21 losses to start the season. In fact, even imagining such a thing has made me change my mind - let's rest up today (an off day) and go start a winning streak tomorrow.

I have to find something to like in the most recent embarrassments. If nothing else this year, that will be the purpose of my blog, as everyone else is busy trashing the Astros. So what to like...?

In Sunday's finale against the Phillies, Ray Oswalt pitched a valiant battle. After giving up a lead off homer, he was pretty much vintage, alternating his 96 MPH fastball with a curve that was clocked as low as 64. Nice to see that he's got that curve this year, after such a bad start last year. Not that it's kept him from being on the wrong side of the loss - he's got an 0-2 record to start the year. But he's pitched really well. It probably goes without saying that the other Roy - Halladay - also pitched pretty well, all the way to a one run complete game.

It's hard to find much to like in a shutout - the Astros' third already in the first week of the season - but I'll have to stretch. The starting pitching isn't worth bragging on - Wandy came out on the wrong side of the battle with Pujols, whose 4 RBI all came off his pitches. I guess Michael Bourn is my man for this game -  he got the Astros first steal of the season, and hit two singles, driving his BA up to .346. On a team with several other starters who are batting under .120, that's kind of nice. Bourn also got up close and personal with the Cards' outfield wall, hitting it hard and falling onto the field, but he doesn't seem to be injured.

I also liked the bullpen work in these two games - in 7 innings, the Astros relievers only gave up one run (by Wilton Lopez, up from Round Rock to fill in for Sammy Sidearm).

Don't get me started on what I didn't like about a shutout. I don't even want to look at the team stats, for fear that the Nats have left us in their dust. The off day today is a welcome break. Unfortunately, most of this week will be afternoon games, meaning that I won't get to see them until I get home from work. But I'm promising now: I'm not going to watch any shutouts, unless we've broken into the W column.

In other interesting news: Andy Pettitte (who the Astros did not want to give a 2 year contract to, some years back, since he was getting kind of old) pitched enough shutout innings in the Yankee's home opener to get the win. To the best of my knowledge, Clemens is still in the process of retiring.