Hot Stoves

Another cold, rainy Sunday, with no ballgames to watch. (I brag about being the only native Texan to have escaped the football bug.) But in keeping with the "hot stove" theme, and the dismal weather, I've got three burners of my stove going, with pots of whole wheat berries and various dals cooking. On the baseball side of the hot stove, there's plenty of recent news, as Ed Wade & Co are reshaping the team for next year.

It's hard for me to really comment intelligently on the changes, since I don't really know the new players well. My personal 27 cents on the personnel moves will have to wait until I get to Kissimmee in March. The Astros set some goals for the offseason - add to the bullpen, score a third baseman, all without spending too much, or making too many long-term commitments. Money freed up after Valverde jumped ship, with Hawkins right on his heels, when the Astros declined to make a multi-year offer. That opened up some funds for an offensive upgrade at third base, and heated up the need to add to the 'pen.

The first move was a trade with Florida - 3 minor leaguers (no hot prospects) for reliever Matt Lindstrom. Next, they signed a free agent, ex-Phillie Pedro Feliz to a one-year contract. Finally, they picked up Brandon Lyon as a closer in a three-year $15M deal. I'm going to have to do some reading up on these guys to get more of a sense of who they are, how they play, etc. And I'll also take a look through my old Spring Training photos to see if they appear in any, wearing Marlins, Tigers, or Phillies uniforms. If you're looking for more intelligent assessments, check out McTaggert or Footer's blogs. Or my blogging colleague Austin's Bottom Line - she's put some thought into all of this and netted it out with a seasonal "Bah, Humbug."

Overall a couple of observations: We're going to be fielding a younger team next year. (Well, we couldn't really have done otherwise - that was a squad that should have had a big party on Veteran's Day.)  Some of the youngsters may have growing pains, but some could also surprise us too. You never know with rookies. The way that the Astros tried to stick to short term contracts (costing them Valverde and Hawkins) looks like a team that's playing for time, as their much maligned farm system is slowly improving. Losing Valverde will give them a couple of extra draft picks, further investments in the future.

So, I'll admit that we might not be seeing the Astros in the playoffs in 2010. But we might get to see the bones of a future championship team start to develop, as some of the youngsters edge their way into the roster.  And it's probably going to be worth spending more time watching what's going on in Lexington and Corpus and Round Rock in the next few years. I'll have to do my homework before March, so I'll have a list of kids to photograph at the practice field.

Meanwhile, I'm posting some farewell pictures of Valverde on my Astros Daily Booth. He was always a fun guy to photograph - clowning around before Spring Training games, being ferocious out on the mound. I don't know if Lyon will be as entertaining in front of the camera. Let me know who else you'd like to see pictures of...

Life WIthout Baseball Games

It's cold and rainy out today - the same nasty weather as the last time I saw the Astros, back in May, at the rained out game against the Nationals. But unlike May, there are no games - rained out or otherwise - to watch today. The season is over. But all is not gloom and doom. It's time for awards for the good things that happened last year. It's time to rebuild for next year. And it's time for me to catch up on those hundreds of pictures that I took last year at Spring Training, and then got to busy to post.

Let's talk about awards for good things, starting with the Astros first Golden Glover outfielder since Cesar Cedeno. Michael Bourn's award caps a major career season, in which he topped the league in steals, bunt hits, and infield hits, and came in second for triples - all categories that reflect his speed on the basepaths. But his Golden Glove reflects his speed in the outfield, where he became a defensive monster this year, standing guard out in front of Tal's Hill. Great fielding isn't  enough to get the Glove though (remember poor Adam Everett?) - a golden bat helps too. After a terrible start with the Astros in 2008, Bourn was like a totally different player this season, and developed into the real leadoff batter that the team had hoped for.

It was one of those ironic twists that the two principals in the 2008 Phillies trade - Bourn and Lidge - traded places in fan favor this season. Lidge was last year's golden boy, with his perfect save record - who can forget the sight of him dropping to his knees after the last pitch of the game that won the 2008 World Series for the Phillies? Meanwhile Bourn struggled terribly his first year with the Astros, leading many fans to question Ed Wade's sanity for making the trade. This year, it all flipflopped - Bourn was the team MVP and the NL's Golden Glove outfielder, while Lidge went back to his pre-trade performance, marked by blown saves and a dismal ERA. I'm not gloating - I like Lidge and cheer for him (as long it's not against the Astros' interests). But I love a Cinderella story. Last year Lidge got his, and this year was Bourn's turn to shine.

Anyway, mazel tov to Bourn on a great achievement and well-deserved recognition. In honor of his Golden Glove award, I'm dedicating my Astros Daily Booth to Bourn this week.  This website is intended for users of Mac Photo Booth to snap pictures of their narcissistic little faces and post them every day for the world to see. But who wants to see me? Instead, I'm using it to post pictures of my guys. Every day I publish one or more photos of Astros from the collection of thousands that I've taken at Spring Training and the occasional regular season game that I get to. I think that I have enough pix to post for about 10 years without repeating - and then of course, I take more every year in Kissimmee. So go to my Daily Booth (http://dailybooth.com/astrosfaninxile) and enjoy the pictures. Let me know - here or over there - who else you'd like to see, once I've finished turning Michael Bourn into baseball god of the week. Left to my own devices, I'd probably post Bagwell pictures every day.

I'm trying to decide, this offseason, what is the right set of online tools to keep - the Astros Fan in Exile website, the blog, the Daily Booth, Twitter, or what? Each one has a different purpose, and they all kind of overlap. I'm considering moving my photo albums to a free site, and killing off the website, which is hosted on Homestead and (I think) too expensive for what I get. But one way or another, I'll be around to hang out with you - my fellow online Astros fans.

Dreamin' of Spring Training

The Astros Spring Training schedule is out. The World Series hasn't even started yet, and I'm already looking forward to March in Kissimmee. Even the malls wait until after Halloween to start with the Christmas decorations, but I start fantasizing about my annual trek to Spring Training 5 months ahead.

Given that the schedule is only tentative, with tickets not going on sale for a few months, I've only tentatively selected my dates - March 16-22. Maybe fly in through Tampa for Tuesday's away game against the Yankees (if I can get tickets!), spend the night with my cousins Jono and Heather, then head to Orlando for the Wednesday home game  against the Nats. After the game, head to the east coast for a night in Cocoa Beach to watch Thursday's shuttle liftoff (if it's not canceled). Spend the day at the beach or touring Nasa, since Thursday's an off day. Then back to Orlando for 4 home games from Friday through Monday - Blue Jays, Yankees again, Mets, and Cardinals. If I stay at my usual place, just a mile away, I can walk to the Sabbath game. With any luck, some of my other Astros blogger friends can go the same week, and we can finally meet!

Not sure who I can con into coming with me this year - my husband Robert can't take off work then. My sons have been there, done that. My daughters don't like baseball. I'm not even sure I can take off a week from work in mid-March, with Passover just a week later; it's hard to know what will be going on at the office so far ahead. But it's nice to start dreaming now - something to get through the long cold winter without baseball.

Meanwhile, I'm planning to cheer for the Phillies in the World Series. I really am.  I'm not just saying that to suck up to Bob (Chaos Scenario) Garfield.

True Confessions

Now that the season is over, it's time to 'fess up to a few things...

1. I don't really watch every game of the season. I aspire to do it, and I succeed in watching virtually all the games that are on weeknights and Sundays. But that part about watching the games that are on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays afterwards on the mlb.tv archive is only partly true - I just watch the archived game video for the games that the Astros win. When they lose while I'm out on religious observance (like the last 3 games of the season, which took place on Sukkot), I take a pass. At best, I watch a few of the highlights, but skip the gloomy ending.

2. I was wrong about Wandy. Ever since Spring Training I've been making confident claims about how this would be Wandy's breakout year, and how he was going to win 15 games. Well, it certainly was his breakout - he was by far the star of Houston's rotation this year. But he only won 14 games. It wasn't a statistic of his own making however, as there were several games --including his last start of the season -- where he pitched great, but didn't get a win out of it. With just a little help from his teammates, he probably would have had 17 or 18 wins. (There's always next year...)

3. I haven't really been a steadfast Astros fan since my childhood. In between my youthful fandom, back when I lived in Houston, and my more recent FANaticism, there were a bunch of years where I didn't follow the Astros that closely. I always cheered for my hometown team, of course, but I didn't know all the players or check on every game. There were a lot of years where the only real Astros news was a box score and one-sentence highlight in the Washington Post. Being a fan in exile has really become a possibility with the Internet. In the early 2000's, semi-realtime pitch-by-pitch game coverage made it possible to follow games live - and free. (Who wants to pay for radio?) Then came mlb.tv. My dad signed up for it in 2004 - quickly discovered that he was blocked from watching his local team, and passed me his account. I was hooked. From there is was just one step to annual treks to Kissimmee and spending 6 months in front of the computer watching games in HDD on my mlb.tv premium subscription.

4. I actually have sent fan mail to a player. I tell everyone that I never talk - or send fan mail - to players. But one time, I actually did send fan mail to a player. It was my favorite-Astro-ever Jeff Bagwell's birthday in May of 2005, and he was on the DL and scheduled for shoulder surgery. So I made a birthday card for him (reproduced below), using a doctored photo of his teammates during a Spring Training game and my Bagwell bobblehead with a band-aid on the right shoulder. I actually did send it to him, at the Astros stadium address. That's pretty much it for player fan mail. I don't talk to players at Spring Training either; I just take their pictures. I do send lots of notes and online-comments to sports reporters, especially my favorite Alyson Footer. But that's because I like to write about baseball, and I suck at playing sports, so sportswriters seem more like kindred spirits. And also, they sometimes write back.

5. I actually did believe that the Astros would make the playoffs this year. Well, not the last month of the season. For all that I claim that "it's not over till it's over" - when they are mathematically eliminated - there is a point where I accept defeat in my heart of hearts. But throughout the abysmal Spring Training and the lousy season start, I kept hoping. I was rocking when the Astros were 1 game out of the division lead in the second half. And I didn't stop hoping until they were pretty deep into their dive into oblivion.

6. I couldn't care less who wins the World Series this year. I told my sister Elizabeth in Denver that I'm cheering for the Rockies. I told my friend Ann from Minnesota-doncha-know that I'm cheering for her Twins. I told my dad, who grew up in Malden, Mass, that I'm cheering for the Red Sox. And I told my daughter-in-law's dad, who is a famous media commentator from Philadelphia, that I'm cheering for the Phillies. But actually, since the Astros aren't playing, I don't really care who wins in the playoffs -- as long as it's not the Yankees.

7. Some of my Spring Training photos are doctored. I'm not really a great photographer. I just take a whole lot of pictures, hoping that if 10% of them are in focus, I still have a lot of good Astros photos. Sometimes I get a lucky shot - like this one of the Nats' shortstop flying over Bourn sliding into second. But the picture I posted was cropped and then edited to fade out those annoying advertising signs in the background.

8. I don't really love Kissimmee. Come on, guys - it's the armpit of Orlando. A drive down US 192 (AKA Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway - he probably died from eating junk food on that road) is like Rockville Pike on an acid trip. And when you get to the western end of it, you're at freakin' Disney World, a big gigantic heap of cartoon mouse crap. So, I'm not all that into Kissimmee. It just happens to be the place I love to go more than just about anywhere in this hemisphere: Astro's Spring Training. I really do love Spring Training. The playoffs just started and I'm already looking forward to Spring Training. No, worse than that - the day I fly out of Orlando to go home from Spring Training, I'm already looking forward to the following March, when I can go back again.

It's just too bad that the Astros don't play somewhere nicer than Kissimmee. But it could be worse - they could be the Braves and actually play inside Disney World.

9. I'm not 100% sure about Baggy and steroids. Bagwell said he never did them, and I'm 99% sure I believe that. Maybe 99.9%. Everyone in the business says what a great guy he is, and you'd like to believe it when he said he didn't use them. But plenty of fans have had been disappointed when their favorite players came out of the PED closet. I remember back when Rafael Palmeiro got his 3000th hit in 2005, and two weeks later news came out about his failed drug test. My son, who grew up in Maryland and cheered for the Orioles, was really bummed out - he felt like his trust was violated. I don't care about The Rocket - he can lie his head off about it, and everyone knows he's guilty as sin. But Bagwell's my favorite Astro ever, and if it turns out that he was a liar and a cheat, it would break my heart.

10. I think the Astros are going all the way next year. Really. I really do. You can quote me on that.

Quite Dead... and Smelling Kind of Rotten

I know - it's totally out of character for me, but I have to admit: I'm kind of tired of this season. Actually, I'm seriously ready for it to end, so I can start thinking about how nice it will be to go to Spring Training next year. (As in "There's always next year" - what you say when your team kicks the bucket.)

Did I mention that we were eliminated over the weekend? Last night, after Rosh Hashanah ended, I immediately turned on my computer, thinking that I'd stay up late and watch all the games that the Astros won between Friday and Sunday. That turned out to be a very small set - none, actually - after their second consecutive series sweep. I was so tired of losing that I went to bed about 9:30 PM.

I'm probably not as tired of losing as Cecil Cooper is. Remember Coop? They guy who used to be the Astros manager? That's so yesterday. Today he's unemployed - a move by the Astros ownership that is sure to surprise no one at all. It's the price you pay when you have a team full of high-priced ostensibly capable players, who can't seem to get past 70 wins this season. After 8 consecutive unsuccessful tries to break 70, the fantasy of coming back to finish with a winning season has been supplanted by the image of just losing all the rest of the games. That would close out the year in a bizarre parallel of Spring Training, where the Astros got off to a record-breaking terrible start.

I'm actually not sorry about the loss of Cooper. He should be glad that he left before Monday night's loss, thus preserving his winning record as the Astros' manager (by 1 game). I hope that the next manager isn't addicted to sacrifice bunts - I don't usually second guess the managers, who know a lot more than I do about baseball. But I'm also tired of precious outs wasted in close games.

Tonight's game - the eighth loss in a row - was not a close one. The Cards won 7-3. Wandy got hammered. He gave up 6 runs in 5 innings on 9 hits. Three of the runs were in the first inning, so it was bad from the start. Wandy's stuck at 13 wins - he's going to have to get lucky to pull off those 15 wins I predicted for him this season.

I can't post without thinking of something to like. Here's one: Bud Lite had another good start on Friday night. The Astros lost, but that wasn't his fault.

Once we get past this series with the Cardinals (who haven't quite clinched, so the Astros have to at least pretend to be trying hard), I hope that they'll play more of the kids. I can squint and pretend it's Spring Training.

Not Quite Dead..

With 16 games to go, the Astros are just 2 games from elimination. Worse, they are 6 games under .500, and unless they turn things around, they stand a real chance of finishing the year with a losing record. They've spent most of the season in that situation, so it's nothing new. Still, it would be nice to surge a bit and come out as winners - statistically, at least.

Getting swept by the Reds was not a step in the right direction. After a long day in the proposal tank, I rushed home every night in time to catch at least half of the Cincinnati games, but was not well rewarded. I won't bother with the stats - just the bottom line: Swept away. The series ended with a game full of irony: The Astros hit 5 homers - and lost. Jeff Fulchino struck out 6 batters in the final two innings of Wednesday night's game - but threw a wild pitch that allowed the tie-breaking run to score. (It was Wright's runner, and he got the loss.)

Meanwhile, after breaking the franchise record for no-decision games in a season, Roy Oswalt hung up his glove and succumbed to the back injury that's plagued his last few starts. It was a lousy season for him - with just single digit wins, and a record book stat that he'd just as soon not have earned.

I have hoped to see a lot more of the minor leaguers, but Cooper's still playing his regulars for the most part, with occasional peeks at the new guys. The pitchers are getting some action, especially with some of the veterans out injured. Bud Norris is getting a regular start now, and is looking just fine. Yoman Bazardo got a start in Cincinnati too, and Sammy Gervacio is seeing a lot of action. The big dude Paronto came up to fill Oswalt's spot in the rotation. Towles is getting an occasional start, especially when his Round Rock teammate Norris is on the mound. But it would be nice to let the young position players into the game, especially against teams that are out of contention, like the Reds. There's a gang of infielders - Johnson, Manzella, and Maysonet - who'd all like a crack at a big league job next year. Maybe Tejada's?

I'm not going to get to see any more games until Sunday night, after Rosh Hashanah ends. I'll have to catch up on the series in Milwaukee after the holiday. By then, the Astros could very well be victims of the Big E.

Seven and Counting...

Another proposal, another Sunday working at the office... On Sundays "business casual" is overdressed - it's blue jeans and tee shirts. So I got up this morning and put on my Biggio 3000 Hits commemorative tee, with a big 7 on the front. (It was sent to me by a dear friend of my late great-aunt's, who got it at the give-away game; she loves the Astros, but tee shirts are not her fashion style.) I came downstairs for a cup of coffee, wanting to spend a few minutes updating my blog before running off to work. Checking the standings for facts and figures, I note that the Astros match my shirt - they've got a big fat 7 in the E column. That means that they are only 7 games away from elimination, with 20 games left to play. Until we hit 0, I teeter between logic and emotion: All those beautiful stats clearly depict a team that will need to hustle to end the year at .500, but there's still that little irresistible voice that whispers "Maybe a miracle..." With the Astros behind by more than 10 games in both the division and the wild card race, that little voice is hard to hear over the boom of "There's always next year."

We're getting to see bits and pieces of next year, now that the Astros have called up some of their future talent. I expected to see a bunch of them this weekend in the series against the already-E'd Pirates. What better time to play the new kids than in a game that won't affect the outcome of anything? Sure enough, Friday's box score (Game 141) looked a whole lot like one from the tail end of Spring Training - starters at the top of the order, with recent callups filling out the bottom. Bud Norris was matched up with his Round Rock backstop JR Towles, and Chris Johnson got a start at third. Sammy Gervacio and Yoman Bazardo each got an inning in relief. Tommy Manzella and Edwin Maysonet made appearances as well.

So how did the Astros fare with all these newbies in the game? They beat the pants off the Pirates, 9-1. Granted, all of the RBIs were credited to the veterans - Lee had a 3-run homer, Berkman had a solo homer and RBI double, Matsui hit two runs in on a 3-for-4 night, and Bourn continued to show why he's second in the league in hitting with RISP. But the callups definitely contributed to the fun. The star of the show was Bud Lite, who threw another terrific game - six innings, 1 ER (solo homer), 6 hits, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. Manzella got his first big league hit, pinch-hitting in the eighth. Gervacio had a 1-2-3 seventh, and Bazardo struck out the side in the ninth.

Last night's game was an all adult affair, not a September callup to be seen. Moehler threw a quality start - 6 innings, 2 ER on 7 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts - but left with the game tied, 2-2. The Astros only runs had come on Lee's 2-run homer. Fulchino, Hawkins and Valverde held the Pirates at bay for the rest of the game. Tejada hit the tie-breaking homer in the seventh. Coop used his veterans, Erstad and Michaels, to pinch hit.

This afternoon Paulino will take the mound, hoping that the Astros have saved a bit of fire power for him. He's been robbed in his last two games, throwing quality starts and then earning the losses when his teammates failed to provide any run support for him - literally, not one run while he was in the game. Now that Berkman's regained his home-run swing (after a 32-game drought), perhaps he'll help to give Paulino a chance.

This has been quite the homestand - first the mind-blowing sweep of the Phillies, then the disappointing series loss to the Braves, and now a chance for a sweep of the Pirates. The Astros may be just 7 games away from the Big E, but there's still room for fun and fantasy in the meantime.

Just Plain Swwwweeeeeeeet!

Not a sight of Brad Lidge on Sunday and Monday, as the Astros completed their four-game sweep of the World Champion Phillies. I have to say it again, it sounds so good: The Astros swept the Phillies.

A couple of True Fan Confessions:

Confession 1: The win today brought tears to my eyes. Not out-and-out sobs like when the Astros won the pennant, just little tears of joy. This far behind, this late in the season, it's hard to get very emotional about the outcome of a game, especially when you're watching on the Internet from Exile. But still, those last three really really close games were pretty exciting. And sweeping the Phillies - a great team - was fantastic and worthy of just a few tears. Now, if we'd swept the Cards and advanced 4 games on the division leaders, I probably would have burst out in tears.

Confession 2: I was not at all gracious about it. I posted uppity messages on the Facebook walls of my Philly-loving friends. Yes, I'm referring to you, Bob, and you too, Cara. I sent emails too.

Just to net it all out: The Astros pitchers were outstanding. Wandy did his usual magic on Friday night, pitching 6 shutout innings. The Wiz didn't let a run score on his watch Saturday night either, before he come out with a sore back - his pair of ERs were courtesy of the bullpen. (His situation is TBD - they're checking out flu symptoms now.) After a couple of rough starts, Bud Lite came back to his top-prospect form in Sunday's game, allowing only a pair of long balls to the homer-hungry Phillies. And Moehler didn't do badly today either - giving up 3 runs (including a pair of solo shots) in his almost-six innings.

Really nice work by most of the relievers as well. Special kudos go to Valverde who logged 2 saves and a win in 3 hitless innings - he only gave up a single walk, and has reduced his ERA to a sweet 1.96. (By the way, in case you haven't seen it yet, check out Valverde's website. It's a hoot.) Welcome back to Brocail, who pitched the ninth on Friday night. I almost didn't recognize him without the beard.

Bourn continues to be everything we wanted him to be, and more. He was so terrific this holiday weekend that one would think that he had something to prove - to the team that traded him to the Astros! He went 6 for 16, with hits in every game, with 3 stolen bases, and made some terrific fielding plays.

Pence is back on his game, with 3 home runs, and 8 RBI in the series. Tejada went 4 for 4 on Sunday, pushing his series batting to 7 for 15, and his BA back over .300. On the flip side, Berkman is way off his hitting - he got more walk (3) than hits (2) against the Phillies this weekend. He hasn't hit a homer in more than a month - a time frame that aligns pretty closely with the Astros slide from close contender to the losing side of .500.

But today's not a day to dwell on negatives. Our "E" number is up to 14 - hope springs eternal. With 4 wins against the mighty Phillies, who knows - maybe the Astros will win all the rest of the games of the season! If they do, you heard it here. (If they don't, it was just a joke.)

In expansion news today, the Astros are bringing up shortstop extraordinaire Tommy Manzella, along with Chris Johnson and pitcher Billy Sadler, who was picked up last month from the Giants. Although Coop hinted that there was to be a surprise in the September callups, it's hard to imagine that any of these players were what he was alluding to as a real surprise.

Bittersweet...

It was a bittersweet moment last night, watching Brad Lidge walk off the mound with his head down after his tenth blown save of the year. I rejoiced when he dropped to his knees after throwing the final pitch of the World Series last season, finishing off his perfect year with the Phillies. But that success didn't have anything to do with the Astros. Lidge's meltdown last night, allowing Matsui to knock in the winning runs in the bottom of the ninth, gave the Astros a rare opportunity to rush the field in joy. There haven't been that many fun moments for them lately, and as we get closer and closer to the E-word, anything that keeps the rest of the season from just being a drudge is more than welcome!

But it's sad that it had to to come at Lidge's expense. I always liked Lidge and I'm sorry that he's having such a poor year. I'd be really happy if he doesn't have any more grief from the Astros in this homestand - providing that it's because Houston is so far ahead in the remaining two games that the Phillies don't need to use a closer.

My first live glimpse of Lidge came at Spring Training in 2005, when I was sitting in the second row of Section 103, right next to the Astros' bullpen (a bench with a cooler). Shortly into the game, Lidge came out and plopped onto the bench, right in front of me. You might remember that 2005 was kind of a special year for the Astros. For me it started out with my first trip to Spring Training, sitting so close to the pitchers that you could eavesdrop on their conversations during the game.

It's more than a bit ironic how things have played out with Lidge and with the player we got for him in the trade, Michael Bourn. Lidge had the season of his career in his first year for the Phillies, with a perfect save record, and a World Series championship. Meanwhile, Bourn

was reviled by fans and sportswriters for being a loser who couldn't manage to get on base, a player whose tenure as the Astros leadoff hitter can be summed up in one sentence: You can't steal first.

What a difference a season makes. Even as Lidge was humiliated again last night, in the latest of an ongoing string of failures this year, Bourn was celebrating a milestone in his own career: His 50th steal of the season. In a breakout year of his own, he leads the league in steals, triples (what would be doubles for anyone else!), infield hits (what would be ground outs for most), and bunt hits. He's batting .296 with an OBP of .369 (80 points over last year). His BA with RISP is .385, tied for second in the league with Hanley Ramirez - fairly exalted company! He's grounded into only one double play all season. He's also second among the league center fielders for outfield assists. (The photo illustrating Bourn's stealing prowess was taken at Spring Training - that's the Nats' Hernandez flying over Bourn's headfirst dive.)

At this point in the season, with the Astros 15 games behind the Cards in the NL Central, a game-by-game dissection of their performance is overkill. Their "E" number is down to 12. But none of this matters until they get their win-loss record back up - they are currently 5 games under .500. It's fun to see back-to-back wins against the Phillies, who are aiming for a second consecutive trip to this fall's Main Event. But the Astros are still 4-6 in their last 10, which is the wrong direction in their journey out of Loserville.

Good news/Bad news:

They came from behind! The Astros pulled off a wild, bottom-of-the-ninth win last night. Matsui's bases-loaded, 2-out single led the Houston home crowd into a joyous frenzy, and redeemed a game that took a worrisome turn in the seventh. Oswalt had been pitching a great start, when he was pulled for back pain in the seventh with the Astros ahead 3-2, and 2 Phillies on base. Byrdak and Fulchino promptly gave up hits to the next two batters, scoring both of Oswalt's runners, and leaving the Astros with only a one-run lead. Hawkins jumped on the bad news bandwagon in the eighth, allowing another pair of runs on 4 hits and a walk - and giving Oswalt the dubious honor of tying the team record for no-decisions in a season. (Hey, there's still plenty of time to break that record!) After Valverde's perfect ninth, the stage was set for the big come-from-behind win.

Wandy Rocks and Rolls -- and Hits! Wandy is making good progress towards meeting or exceeding the 15 wins I predicted for him back in the Spring. Another great start on Friday night: Wandy pitched seven scoreless innings, helping Houston to its 7-0 win over the Phillies both on the mound and at the plate. In the second inning, Wandy's bases-loaded double plated the first two runs of the game.

Not Quite a Full House. The Astros have added on a few newcomers, as well as several returning DLers, since the first of September. Most notable, of course, is Aaron Boone, whose amazing come-back from last spring's open-heart surgery will be one of the top feel-good stories of a not-so-wonderful season. His home-field debut on Friday night got Boooone an ovation - right before the Phillies pitcher hit him with a pitch. Minor leaguers in the dugout these days include Edwin Maysonet (again) and JR Towles. The Astros still have a bit of space for bringing up a few more players for a cup of coffee - or even a latte or cappuchino. Other than a mid-month series against the Cards and final week series against the Phillies, the Astros are playing non-contenders for the rest of the season, so why not give some kids a chance?

Not that I'm admitting that the playoffs are not possible, of course - we're still 12 games away from the Big E.

There's No Place Like Homestretch...

With just a couple of days to go before the September callups, the Astros seem to have abdicated their quest for a last-minute turnaround. A month or so ago, they were just a game under the division leading Cards, and life was beautiful. Now, with 33 games to go, they are 13 games behind, and playing such uninspired games that Oswalt's started complaining. There's not much point in talking about the standings though, when the team seems unable to break .500.

This weekend's series is off to a depressing start. It's one thing to lose a couple of close ones, like the games in St. Louis. It's another to be hit by two blowouts in a row - Friday night's 14-7 thrashing (Bazardo gave up 8 runs in his 2-ish innings) and last night's 9-0 squashing (Norris gave up 6 in 5). Did I mention that they got 7 hits last night, but didn't manage to score a run?

Granted, Bazardo and Norris are recent callups from the minors, and while hopes are high for future prospects (at least for Norris), they're still newbies. With Wandy and Roy O pitching today and tomorrow, we may see some better results. But as the chances of a winning season (let alone playoff opportunities) diminish, it's just as well for the kids to get some experience now. It just doesn't make for much fun for fans.

But there's generally something to like about every game - well, maybe not yesterday's. You never know when there will be something amazing. The season stats may be insurmountable baggage, but each game starts out 0-0 with a chance of being memorable. Who knows, maybe Wandy will pitch a no-hitter today?

In other team news... We won't being seeing any more of the Bulldog this season. His current set of injuries (everything is broken) have resulted in a decision to hang up his glove and schedule surgeries on his shoulder and both knees. Sorry to say this (I know you're a fan of his, Austin), but I'm glad he's done. Hampton might be a great guy, but he hasn't been exactly hot for the Astros this year. Where does that leave our rotating door rotation? Oswalt, Wandy, Moehler, Norris, and (Bazardo or Paulino?) seem to be it for now. We may see some others over the next month or so, after the expansion.

The bullpen still has regulars Byrdak, Fulchino, Hawkins, and Valverde, plus newcomers Samuel Gervacio (from Round Rock) and Wilton Lopez (from Corpus) filling in for Arias, Brocail, and Wright who are on the DL. In addition to the regular gang of position players, Maysonet has rejoined the team.

But wait a couple of days and there will be a whole new gang of players - all of whom will probably bring a lot more energy to the field than the current guys who have written off this season.

Bruntlett's 15 Minutes of Fame

Ex-Astros in the News... Eric Bruntlett got a chance to be a hero again yesterday with unassisted triple play that ended the game against the Mets. With runners on first and second and no outs, Bruntlett grabbed a liner, stepped on second and tagged the runner from first. All within seconds, there were three outs and the game was over. Bruntlett is not a starter, but got the chance to start yesterday - going 3 for 5 at the plate. You have to like a guy who makes the most of an opportunity.

I say "hero again" because I saw Bruntlett hit a 3-run homer against the Nats in 2005, to end a grueling July-hot 14 inning game. Here's a picture of Bruntlett's rare post-game interview. I'm sure that there was a similar interview at the end of yesterday's game, but with a different announcer.

Great fielding, Bruntlett!

Hot Prospect, Not a Magic Bullet

There was quite a bit of anticipation among knowledgeable Astros fans when Bud Norris was brought up to the bigs. And his terrific performances in his first couple of starts added to the excitement. His third start wasn't as good, but the Astros got plenty of runs to cover him, giving him a third win. His fourth start was short and not sweet, and today's was even shorter after he gave up 6 runs in less than 2 innings. The kid has got some great stuff, but he's still young and inexperienced in the big leagues. Norrris' final line for the day: 1 inning (+ 2 batters in the second), 6 ERs (5 of them in the first inning) on 6 hits and 3 walks, with 1 strikeout.

That 6-run deficit was a challenge, but it should not have been insurmountable, assuming that the Astros bullpen could hold the D-backs for the rest of the game. Houston shut out Arizona in Game 1 on Friday night, behind a brilliant start by Oswalt. The bullpen pitched a few more scoreless innings in Game 2, allowing the Astros to grab the series with a 4-2 win. So the good news in today's game was that the relievers did a great job, giving up only a single run in 8 innings. In particular, Paulino came in to relieve Norris in the second, and stayed for 4 innings. He allowed one of Norris' runners to score, but otherwise shut out the D-backs, with 2 hits , no walks, and 3 strikeouts.

The bad news was that Houston's batters were only able to score 5 runs, never catching up after Norris left the game. I had hoped to report this evening that Houston was back at .500, and that it's time to start to sneak up on the Cards as the Astros head to St Louis on Tuesday. But that will have to wait for a few more days, as the Astros winning streak was held to 4 games.

An amusing note from today's game: For some reason, Carlos Lee decided to join the choir that performed the national anthem before the game. He stood in the back row and sang along. Not sure whether he was a tenor or a bass.

Checking in on the sickies: Hampton is on the DL with a torn left rotator cuff. Although he's not having surgery, hoping to come back, I don't expect to see him pitch again for the Astros. Of course I said that last week too. Wesley Wright is on the DL with a left shoulder strain. Brocail is preparing for a rehab stint, hoping to be back with Houston soon. These injured pitchers have made room for a couple of minor leaguers, to get more than a cup of coffee in the bigs - Bazardo, Gervacio, and Paulino are all hanging out in Houston, along with infielder Maysonet. And we're just a few days away from the September roster expansion.

In good injury-related news, Aaron Boone is playing in the minor leagues, rehabbing after his open heart surgery 5 months ago. After a stint with Corpus, he's now with Triple A Round Rock. What an amazing comeback!

In other news: Pudge made his second start for his new/old team today, knocking in 1 of the Rangers' 4 runs with a double and a sac fly. Only time will tell whether the trade for a couple of minor league prospects will be good for Houston.

Off day tomorrow. Maybe I'll go to the gym, since I won't have Valverde's closing to push my pulse rate up.

Testing 123... 123 Games, That Is

I never count the Astros out until they are actually mathematically eliminated, having seen this team turn around losing seasons in nearly miraculous ways. However, I don't actually pay that much attention to the standings when the team is under .500. While it's possible for a division lead to have a losing year, it's just wrong for a team with a losing record to go to the playoffs. So, as the Astros have been bumbling around under the .500 mark recently, it didn't make that much difference to me who else wins or loses.

The recent 4 game winning streak has bumped the team to one game under, and given me a bit more interest in the standings. It's not a pretty sight - even though could be tied for second in the Central Division by the end of the day, they are still a hefty 9 games behind the Cards and almost as far back in the wild card race. We can pretty much write off the wild card - it would not only require an amazing run by the Astros, it would also depend on al the teams above to suddenly go south. But with 40 or so games left to play, once the Astros pass the Cubs, the only team between them and the playoffs is St Louis. First, however, they need to get to .500.

GAME 111: Wandy's Record Breaker

Astros 2, Brewers 0

Winning 11 games in a season doesn't sound like that big a deal, but for Wandy Rodriguez it's a new personal record - and he reached it with almost a third of the season left to go. Back on the mound after a minor injury, he threw 7 shutout innings to push his ERA down to 2.51 and his record to 11-6. It was sometimes messy, but Wandy managed to wiggle his way out of trouble in every inning - including the 5 Brewers he left stranded in the first two innings alone!

Wandy owes his biggest gracias to Geoff Blum - both for the 2-run homer that accounted for all of the offensive action in today's game, and for a terrific defensive play at third that kept the Brewers from scoring in the second inning.

His second gracias goes to our closer, who ended the eighth safely after Fulcino allowed a pair of baserunners, then pitched a wild ninth for the save. I think that my heartrate was higher when Valverde put the first two batters of the ninth on base than when I was on the exercise bike at the gym this morning. Wandy's third gracias can go to home plate up Larry Vanover, who was struck with a sudden case of generosity, calling somewhat marginal third strikes on the last two Milwaukee batters to end the game.

The closest the Astros came to another run was Wandy's own infield hit in his last at bat. With 2 outs, Michaels attempted to score from second, while the Brewers were busy trying to throw Wandy out at first. But Fielder alertly threw home to stifle the rally. Give Wandy - a very light-hitting pitcher - credit for not being an easy out. He was a total pain to the Brewers today.

So after losing 4 series in a row, Houston pulled off a win today to close out the home stand with some fun. Now off for some sun - to Miami for 4 games against the Marlins.

Update on who will be the Astros' fifth starter: Hampton's MRI showed a torn lateral meniscus in the knee, which apparently sounds worse than it is. He's day to day, and may be able to take the start on Thursday. I'm not sure whether that's actually good for the Astros.

Rotation: To and From the DL

It's hard to remember that just a couple of weeks ago, the Astros were poised to surge to the top. Recently it's just been one-step-forward, two-steps-back, as Houston has dropped several series in a row. Part of the reason is the competition: They've been playing better teams - the Cubs, the Cards, and the Giants, all contenders. But the real killer is the DL, which has become a more popular place to be than the active roster, especially for the pitching staff.

Consider our starting rotation from just a few weeks back: Oswalt, Wandy, Moehler, Hampton, Ortiz. Ortiz is gone, released. Oswalt's on the DL. Wandy's coming off the DL today, ready or not. Hampton came out with a sprained knee in the second inning last night - who wants to bet on whether he's back this season? The bullpen's not much better off. Brocail made it back from the DL (hamstring) for 3 games, before a new injury (shoulder strain) overtook him. Hawkins is out with shingles.

The Astros have filled in with a couple of young pitchers from Round Rock: Bud Norris is doing what we all had hoped. His first two starts have been excellent, both resulting in wins, with a 1.69 ERA. Yoman Bazardo, on the other hand, had a dreadful first appearance for the Astros last night. Relieving the ailing Hampton, he pitched one inning, giving up 5 runs (3 earned) on 3 hits and 3 walks, and making a fielding error. To be fair: He wasn't supposed to pitch 3 days after his last start, so we can add this to the long list of things to blame Coop for. ("He sucked it up," said Cooper - but should he have had to?) Bazardo did well in Round Rock this year (9-6 record, 3.20 ERA, 1.13 WHIP). Still, he is not a hot prospect like Norris, so expectations are less.

All in all, to turn around from the slippery slope that is quickly putting post-season chances out of reach, the Astros need to get their pitching staff glued back together. Wandy's coming back for today's rubber match with the Brewers, claiming that he's all better and ready to go. Oswalt's probably starting on Tuesday against the Marlins, if all goes well. Hampton's being evaluated, and who knows the outcome. You have to love the Bulldog's desire to keep pitching, but frankly, he's been pretty awful. When was the last time he didn't give up at least one run in the first inning? He's been better as a batter (.286 BA, 1 HR, 6 RBIs) than as a pitcher (5.30 ERA, 1.57 WHIP). Sadly, it's hard to make the case that we're better off with him than without him - the old Ann Landers rule of thumb for breaking up. We got 107 innings out of him - that's the most that he's reached in any season since 2004.

So heading to Miami, assuming all the glue holds, we sort of have a rotation: Oswalt, Wandy, Moehler, Norris, and... well, TBD. (Probably bring up Paulino again? Give a start to Bazardo or Sampson?)

Now we just need some hitting to back it up. That brings us to the subject of our other guy coming off the DL, Lance Berkman. The Puma claims that he's better. Actually, according to Alyson Footer, Berkman answered more colorfully: "If a grizzly ran out of that room right there, I could beat all you guys up the stairs." The trainers are less optimistic, not wanting him to return prematurely, re-injure himself, and end up with him out for the rest of the year. But we could really use his bat back, especially if we can't depend on the pitching to keep the score down.

We really can't blame the batters for yesterday's loss - it wasn't as if we were shut out. With 5 runs on 11 hits, the game was winnable - just not against the 12 runs on 14 hits and 8 walks that the pitchers gave up. And 2 errors to boot. The memorable moment from last night's game: Carlos Lee's 300th career homer. Lee's the third Astro to reach this milestone this year, along with Puma and Pudge.

Enough random ramblings and gratuitous grumbling... Let's all look forward to a great start from Wandy this afternoon! We need a series win to get back on track!

Wandy Rules - July Pitcher of the Month!

Wandy - the NL pitcher of the month for July?

Who woulda thunk it?

Well, I for one. I love to say "I toldja so." And I did - I've been saying since Spring Training - if Wandy stays healthy, this is his year. And so far, this is his year.

He earned the honor for a 4-0 record in July with a miniscule 0.75 ERA. He pitched 36 innings, giving up just 3 ERs, striking out 34. He had 18 consecutive shutout innings from July 2-21. He's fifth in the NL for ERA. Wandy may not be a household name in most NL towns, but he ought to be getting some respect in Houston.

I predicted at Spring Training that Wandy was good for at least 15 wins this season - 50% more than he's ever had before. With 2/3 of the season over, he's at 10. The question now is whether he'll stay healthy. He left his last game after 4 innings with a strained hamstring. He says that he'll be able to make his next start, but hopefully, he won't exacerbate the problem.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Wandy on a fantastic month of July - and let's hope that August and September are more of the same!

GAME 106: The Bulldog Bites Back

Astros 4, Giants 3

The Astros kicked off their homestand with a very entertaining win over the Giants, after a discouraging road trip. It didn't look too good at the beginning, as Mike Hampton fell into his ongoing pattern of first inning trouble. After two quick outs, he gave up 3 singles in a row, allowing the Giants to score first. But unlike some of his other recent bad starts, Hampton plugged the leak at a single early run, settled down, and went on for five more, giving up only one additional run. He didn't do it without some excitement - scattering 8 hits and a pair of walks, while striking out 6. In the third through fifth innings, Hampton retired 8 straight batters. But then he had to pitch his way out of trouble up to the end - in the sixth inning, he loaded the bases with one out, then struck out two batters to end the threat.

Hampton got a little help from his friends in the field behind him. In the second inning, Pence fielded a single and made a terrific throw to the plate, allowing Pudge to tag out Renteria. In Hampton's 6-pitch fifth, the Giants went down 1-2-3 on a trio of ground balls to Tejada - only one of which could be described as routine. The third out resulted from Miggy's throw on his knees, just barely catching the (very slow) Molina running to first.

The Bulldog got some help from the Bullpen too, with a perfect seventh from Chris Sampson, and a scoreless eighth from Alberto Arias.

With everyone working so hard on defense, Houston should have had an easy time of it. But Hampton had very little help from the Astros batters in the early innings. He left the game with the Astros behind 2-1, with Blum's solo homer in the fifth accounting for the Astros only run. The problem was the Giant's excellent young starter, Matt Cain, who threw a complete game. The Bulldog caught a break when Bourn led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple, and Matsui followed with a 2-run homer to put the Astros ahead 3-2 on Hampton's watch. In the eighth, Pence tripled and Lee singled to score him for a fortuitous insurance run. That extra run turned out to be lucky for Hampton and for the Astros. In the ninth inning, Valverde tried to make it exciting, giving up a two-out run to cut the Astros' lead to just one run. But then he took pity on poor Hampton and finished off the inning for a much needed win.

So all in all, a very exciting and entertaining game, putting the Astros back to .500. Losers no more. Let's hope that we don't see the other side of .500 for the rest of the season!

GAME 105: This Bud's for Us!

Houston 2, Cardinals 0

"We needed a win in the worst way," said Coop. And then the Astros got a win in the best way - from awesome pitching from their newest emergency callup, Bud Norris.

Astros regulars have been anticipating the appearance of top prospect Norris for some time. In yesterday's blog, I expressed a hope that the rest of the guys would do the right thing and score big for Norris' first outing. That turned out to be a fairly useless wish - the Astros barely scored at all. Did they think that ending the road trip with a Cards' sweep would be hitting bottom and they could just miraculously turn it around from here on?

But no worries - our new baby pitcher just kept on pitching, not allowing the first red bird to get a hit until the sixth inning. His line for his first start: 7 shutout innings, 2 hits, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts. And, oh by the way, he got a hit in his first major league at bat. With a little help for from his friends Wright, Sampson, and Valverde, Norris earned his first win with a shutout over the first place Cardinals. Against them, St Louis superstar Pujols and hot-hot-hot Holliday went 0 for 7. Quite a memorable first start - welcome aboard Bud Norris!

The bad news, of course, is that Norris was pitching in the Wizard's spot, with the ace still out with a back strain. It doesn't look likely that Oswalt will be back for his next start either (postponed to next Saturday), and the Astros may be bringing up Paulino to join the Express gang by week's end.

Let's Just Move On...

I'm not going to bother posting the numbers for the past few games - times like these are worth forgetting. Just when Houston was on a roll, with a winning record, just a game or two out of the division lead with critical games scheduled against the big competition, the wheels came off...

It's hard to say whether the Astros would be living high right now, if they still had the Wiz and the Puma and Wandy and the whole bullpen hale and hearty. It takes the whole team to go from being winners to losers and back again. But having our most reliable pitchers and our franchise star hitter out injured has put the club on the wrong side of .500 again. Losing 3 of 4 games to the Cubs, and then dropping the first 2 games in the Cards series was nearly the worst scenario for a team that was poised to go to the head of the division. Instead, they find themselves 2 games under .500 and 5 1/2 games out in was a very close competition just a week ago.

Oswalt came out of the game right in the middle of an at-bat in his last start, poking at his side, and appearing to limp a bit. The back injury hasn't yet landed him on the DL, but that's still an option. Then Wandy pulled up lame base-running in yesterday's game, and now he's day to day. The remaining guys in the roster aren't doing so well either. Ortiz was doing so badly that he was given his walking papers as the team was packing to leave Chicago, after being crushed in his past few starts. Hampton's still around, but was the cause of one of last week's embarrassments in Chicago. In his last 4 starts, the Bulldog hasn't made it through 6 whole innings, while giving up 22 earned runs. Moehler's the only pitcher left in the rotation who's solid.

The bullpen has had its aches and pains too, which has been a killer given the few innings that the starters have survived. After Oswalt's premature exit, the Astros overwhelmed their diminutive lefty reliever, keeping him on the mound for 55 pitches on a hot day - Wright ended up in the hospital with dehydration. Sampson and Brocail are just back from the DL.

The Astros are filling in from Round Rock, which will please the fans who have given up on 2009 and want to just start building a younger team for next year. In particular, fans of the Future Astros are cheering to see Bud Norris called up, earlier than expected, and probably earlier than his coaches wanted. He'll get his chance for his first big league start in about an hour, when the Astros try to avoid a St Louis sweep. Gervacio has also joined the team. He's not a big-name prospect like Norris, but perhaps his weird sidearm will confound some opposing batters.

The Astros have been stung at the plate also. Berkman's still on the DL, after trying to play on an injury before he was ready. (Remember what happened when Valverde tried for heroics earlier in the season - he was out for weeks.) Tejada and Lee are doing okay, but Pence has been in a slump for the past couple of weeks. Bourn's slowed down a bit (although not on the basepaths). After going 4 for 5 in Game 2 of the Chicago series, Kepp's been 0-fer since.

When you put it all together, we're kind of stuck in a rut.

All this bad news does not, however, dissuade me from cheering my team on to a pennant victory - not until we're mathematically eliminated. It does make it hard to get up any enthusiasm for watching the reruns of the losses in the Sabbath games I missed.

Let's hope that the guys in the line up today go all out for Bud Norris' first ML start. Give the kid (and this old lady) a thrill.

GAMES 96-98: I Really, Really Hate the Mets

Astros 5, Mets 4

Mets 10, Astros 3

Mets 8, Astros 3

My enmity for the Mets may be irrational, but it's long-lived, with its roots in my childhood when the two teams were born together in the 1962 expansion. I'm pretty sure I didn't hate the Mets then - I was just a little kid and didn't have any insight into the other teams that the Astros were losing to in those first years. But by the time that the Mets were Miraculous, a few seasons later, the seeds of my dislike were sown. And by the time that I moved from Texas to Maryland some 20 year later, I was primed to hate the '85 and '86 Mets who kept my team from the glory they deserved. Okay, I'll admit that it's probably just jealously, call it sibling rivalry. But I really, really hate the Mets.

So it's even more bitter that it was the Mets who kept the Astros from capitalizing on the weekend opportunity to grab the Central division lead from the Cards. With the Phillies squashing the Red Birds, it was Houston's chance to zip ahead. Instead, after eking out a close one on Friday night, the Astros lost big against the Mets.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are on a four-game winning spree, taking the division lead from the Cards, and hoping to continue their streak against the visiting Astros. Should be a great battle though - starting with Zambrano facing off against the hottest pitcher in the league this month. Oh yeah, folks, that would be our very own Wandy Rodriguez.

Freakin' Mets.

A Perfect Night Off

Since the Astros had the night off, I decided to make a stop at Costco on my way home. Dropped close to 500 bucks without even buying junk food. That's a lot of INGREDIENTS. Driving back from Virginia in pouring rain, I heard on the radio that White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle had a perfect game, and I knew that baseball would be in my evening plans after all. I mentioned yesterday my ongoing greedy wish for the game to remember, every time one of my Astros favorites takes the mound. In the meantime, it's nice to share in someone else's joy - especially when the outcome doesn't affect our post-season opportunities.

So I got home, put away the supersized bottles of olives and the 80-pack of Keurig pods, the two month supply of terlit paper, and a whole lot of other stuff we couldn't possibly live without. Poured myself a glass of Yarden (Golan Heights, Israel) Sauv Blanc, and fired up the mlb.tv. I went straight to the top of the ninth, to hear the story from the perspective of the Chicago announcers.

Right off the bat (so to speak) Gabe Kapler, batting first for the doomed (Devil) Rays, whomps a long fly ball that appeared to end the quest for perfection. Of course, I already knew the outcome, so I wasn't as shocked as the broadcasters that DeWayne Wise leapt up against the wall and caught what was certainly a home run. That the bit of a bobble before he secured it and held it aloft like a torch -- real nice touch. I especially liked the replays, showing Buerhle's face when the ball was caught. The Chicago broadcasters were, of course, doing everything they could NOT to mention that there was a perfect game on the line: "Under the circumstances..." Let's not jinx it. The next batter came within a ball of walking, before striking out swinging. Crowd goes wild. Then the final batter hits a little grounder to end the game. The White Sox broadcaster was extremely eloquent: "Yes, Yes, Yes, YES, YES, YES!!!, YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mark Buerhle's teammates then piled on, thumping him on and about his noggin with glee.

I'm a big fan of the ritual head bashing that male athletes engage in when they are extremely happy. My own two sons are an architect and a lawyer, respectively - fields in which IQ points are cherished. But among the sporting types of males, this ritual of celebration, in which the honoree sacrifices up to 2 percent of his IQ points for the communal gratification of his colleagues, is a critical bonding custom. So they all ran up and banged their fists on his head. (There were a few surreptitious butt-pats too, an imitation of pseudo-homo-eroticism, given that professional baseball is a sport in which there is not even one actual homosexual player. Yeah, right.) From the post-game interview, it was hard to tell whether Buehrle was actually suffering from the early symptoms of a concussion or if he was just overcome with emotion. It did not help that the woman that interviewed him kept asking extremely blond questions: But tell me again (for the fourth time), how did it FEEL? Good, real good, duh.

At this inanity, I bailed from the Chicago celebrations, and moved on to watch it all over again, this time from the Rays' TV broadcast. (I am SO glad I upgraded my mlb.tv subscription to Premium.) The Rays' sportscasters, of course, had no problem with using the "P" word - they were HOPING to jinx it. It's fun to hear how the other guys report on a big event. Their team is being wiped out and they aren't having fun. But still, it's really hard not to get caught up in the beauty of what's happening. A perfect game! It's insane that anyone could do that.

The best part of the story for me, of course, is the center fielder, DeWayne Wise. A guy who's spent his 10 years in the majors mostly playing in the minors. A guy who spent the whole game on the bench, until the ninth inning, when he got put in center field as a defensive replacement. And then his ridiculous leaping catch, and that heart-attack bobble, turns out to be the only thing between a Perfect Game and a Perfect Shame.

In the baseball novel that I've been writing in my head for the past 5 years, there is a game kind of like this. Joe Dove is on the mound in the ninth inning with two down, facing his 27th batter, who hits a long fly ball. His catcher Adam Marsh suddenly collapses, blood seeping out from his mitt, and Dove rushes to the plate... There is a reason that the catcher's hand is bleeding and a reason that Dove doesn't even look to see the fate of that fly ball. But you'll have to wait until I am not spending my life working late nights in the proposal tank to find out. And maybe I'll let you vote on my website to decide whether or not the ball is caught - the outcome isn't really critical to the story. The catcher is, however.

In other baseball news today, the Cards are licking their wounds by coming to Washington to take it out against the Nats. In the seventh, the Cards lead 4-1, and the game (already a makeup) is delayed due to the scattered thundershowers that are peppering the area. (At my house in Maryland, it's not raining, but there's a ton of lightning to the south.) Although the Nats did win a pair from the Mets this week, I have to assume that the Cards won't have much trouble against them. Happily, the Cards are off to Philly tomorrow, to take on more formidable competition. Let's hope the Mets stay the course, as they're on their way to Houston.

One more baseball tidbit: I've become so high tech. Last night I downloaded MLB At Bat onto the iPod Touch that was a free giveaway with my new computer. After 26 years as a software engineer, I hate to sound like a complete Luddite, but ... WOW. Lying in bed watching a live baseball game on an electronic toy is so Dick Tracy. I think I'll go lie on the couch and watch that ninth inning in Chicago again.

GAME 95: Live, from Exile: Get Out Your Broom...

Astros 4, St Louis 3 - THAT'S A SWEEP!!!!!

I'm writing this up as I'm watching the game - something I've only actually done once, during the last game of of the 2005 season. With Roy O facing Chris Carpenter, it's supposed to be a great game, so I thought it would be fun to share my live reactions in the blog - not just on Twitter. These two pitchers are 5-0 in their combined last 3 starts, with an ERA well under 2. Everything points to a pitchers' duel.

When a favorite pitcher like the Wiz is on the mound, I have my own little ritual: First, I always start out hoping that it's going to be one of those games that is remembered for years - a perfect game or a no hitter. Then, once the first hit has been given up, I'm hoping for a great performance -and a win - for my pitcher. If things go south, then I'm hoping for a win for my team. There's layers of hopes and expectations - but I always start out really greedy.

So tonight, after 2 innings, both Oswalt and Carpenter are doing their thing: Pitching well. No perfect games or no no's tonight - both teams have hits, but no score yet. My big concern after last night's blow out: The Astros used up all their firepower yesterday, and didn't save any goodies for Roy O. Hopefully the first inning is not going to be representative of the night: Bourn eked out an infield hit, stole second, got to third on Matsui's single. Runners on first and third, no outs - and the Astros still managed not to score. That is not a good sign. Let's hope that this won't turn out to have been the Astros best chance all night.

Now after 3, more of the same: Score is zip-to-zip. Both pitchers throwing well, but Oswalt has a bit of an edge on pitch count - 29 to Carpenter's 41.

Middle of the 4th: Roy O just threw that great curve to strike out Ryan Ludwick for the third out. Just 9 pitches for the inning - he's on his game. Dare we hope for another complete game tonight?

Astros are up to bat in the bottom of the 4th, and the idiot FSN guys are interviewing the hotdog guy about all the new flavors of dogs at the 5-7 Grill. Like I care about treif wieners in another time zone. I'd rather be watching Tejada and Lee bat. With 2 outs, Lee just singled to center. Blummer's up - I'm calling a homer... Last night I called that Lee grand slam, you know. I told my husband (who couldn't care less about baseball): Lee's up with the bases loaded - watch him hit a grand slam. And then he did.

Fly ball to left, three outs, end of four innings. I have to make a confession: I like to brag about calling home runs. And I do call a lot of them, especially for guys like Berkman and Lee, who are prone to such feats. But I also call a lot of home runs that don't actually happen. I'm not psychic - I just call a lot of home runs.

Top of the fifth: Mark DeRosa just hit a homer off Oswalt, giving the Cards first blood... Two batters later, Carpenter strikes out swinging at a 94 MPH fastball to end the inning. Oswalt's only thrown 49 pitches in 5 innings. Still hoping for a complete game from the Wiz. But he might have to hit a homer of his own to get this team on the board. (If he does, just remember that I called it!)

The Astros are up to bat, and Fox is out in the stands interviewing a woman who's celebrating her 97th birthday at the game. She's wearing a paper tiara with "97" over her Astros hat. Very nice - now can we go back to watching the Astros bat???! Pence just struck out for the second time. Pudge walked. Coste struck out - two down. Now Oswalt will be up - big chance to hit his game-winning homer in this inning. :-) Hold on a sec - I'm going to full-screen the video so I can watch this great event.

Oswalt grounded out to end the fifth. Astros trail 1-0. Carpenter's at 70 pitches. Hopefully the Astros are going to try to beef up his pitch count in the next inning or so, and try to get rid of him. They are having good luck against the Cardinal bullpen.

Sixth inning already, a little over an hour into the game. Both pitchers are throwing quickly. Leadoff double to Schumaker. Rasmus bunts to advance the runner, but Pudge throws to third and gets the runner in a close play. (Replay: Hard to say. Thanks, Ump.) Pujols up with a runner on first... and he hits into a double play. The Astros defense is really outstanding. Oswalt gets through the inning on 6 pitches - he's now at 55 after 6 innings.

Bottom of the sixth, and happily, no dumb FSN cameos out in the stands, so Exilees like me can actually watch Bourn get a leadoff walk. Matsui's sac bunt moves up Bourn - too bad they had to waste an out just to get Bourn to second base. Unfortunately, Carpenter & Molina aren't easy to steal against - Bourn got a lucky break when he stole in the first inning. Infield hit for Tejada on a swinging bunt - Molina drops the ball. Runners on first and third, one out. Come on, guys, score a couple of runs. Don't leave Roy with a loss in a gem like this! Lee grounds into a fielders choice, and Bourn scores to tie it up. Blum's up - he's hit a couple of fly balls tonight - how about a big bop into the Crawford Boxes? Nope, he hits it right to Carpenter for the third out. At least the game is tied. After six, score is 1-1 in the pitchers' duel that was predicted. Carpenter's up to 88 pitches - can we get rid of him soon? I'd prefer to take our chances with the bullpen.

Top of the seventh: Oswalt gives up a leadoff infield single on a ball that bounces off his glove. Would have been better to let it go and let Tejada take it! Next batter hits liner straight to Tejada. Cards are going to try to tire out the Wiz: DeRosa watches 7 pitches without moving, and walks. Molina singles to left - Lee makes a great throw to the plate, but Pudge drops the ball and the runner scores. Cards lead 2-1, with runners on first and third, one out. Sac fly to center scores another run - Bourn's throw to the plate bounced off the mound. Fly ball ends the threat, three outs. I sure hope that the Astros are going to make this up to Roy in the bottom of the inning. Roy added 24 pitches to his count in this inning - he's now at 79.

Bottom of the seventh: Pence grounds out on a first pitch swing - he's been totally stymied by Carpenter all night. Wish he'd been a little more patient - we need to wear out Carpenter. Guess he's afraid of striking out a third time. Pudge hits a long fly, that comes within inches of being a homer - instead it's a long single. Coste gets on with an infield hit, bringing Puma to the plate to pinch bat for Oswalt - no complete game tonight. Crowd is on its feet, going nuts. Berkman hits a single to load the bases. He can hit, but can't run - Kata comes in to pinch run. Bourn goes down on a called strike three, two outs. Matsui up, bases loaded, two down - and he singles to center, scoring Pudge. Coste has to hold at third. Tejada flies out to end the inning, with the Astros down 3-2. No win for Oswalt tonight, but there's still time to keep it from being a loss! Carpenter's at 104 pitches - hopefully we'll get someone who will be more charitable to our guys in the eighth.

Eighth inning: Byrdak relieves Oswalt, in to face the first two (lefty) batters. He does the job, chikchak, and passes the ball to Hawkins to face Pujols. Ground out to end the inning. Pujols has not been a problem for the Astros in this series.

Bottom of the eighth: Ugh! Carpenter's back! Can't we get rid of him? Two quick outs... Pence up - will his luck change? Pudge gives him a few words of advice. Takes a wild swing at the first pitch. We'll never get rid of Carpenter at this rate. (On a totally irrelevant subject: I hate Chris Carpenter's mustache. Is he trying to look like a naturalist, with a caterpillar under his nose? Or maybe a 70's porn star?) Pence strikes out for the third time to end the eighth. We get one more chance here, guys - let's hope that Carpenter's done for the night.

Ninth inning: Valverde pitching in a non-save situation. With yesterday's blowout, and tomorrow's off day, he might as well get some exercise. Strikes out Ludwick on a nasty splitter. Ankiel singles. DeRosa goes down swinging for the second out. Molina up, the runner goes... and Pudge nails him with a perfect throw to Matsui. Three out.

Bottom of the ninth, Astros down by one, with the bottom of the lineup coming up. Hey guys, Roy doesn't deserve a loss tonight - just a couple of runs will do it...

Cardinals' closer Ryan Franklin is up. Carpenter's sporting an ugly mustache, and Franklin's wearing his matching beard. He looks like a billy goat. The Fox guys are going on and on about how wonderful Franklin's been pitching this year, 2000 consecutive scoreless innings, blah blah, blah... Time to upset his streak.

Pudge leads off with a single to center. Coste set up to bunt. Wah. I hate to waste an out when we're down to our last 3. Pudge nearly gets picked off first. Coste fails in two bunt attempts; hopefully he's swinging on 0-2. Swinging.... and rips a double to center, scoring Pudge to tie the game!!! OKAY!!!! I'm smiling now! Kepp singles to left, Coste to third. Rewind to the first inning: First and third, no outs. CAN WE SCORE THIS TIME???

Bourn pops up - one down. We have to do it NOW!

Matsui grounds to second - looked like an easy double play, but they go for the play at home. Coste out - two down, with runners on first and second.

Tejada singles to left -- he runs to first waving his arms in joy, as Kepp scores from second. I'm jumping up and down in my kitchen, clapping, and grinning like an idiot.

ASTROS SWEEP THE FIRST PLACE CARDS!!! We're only one game out of first! Man, I love baseball!!! I'm going to wear this dumb grin for the rest of the night.

GAME 94: Wandy Rocks, Carlos Rolls...

Astros 11, Cardinals 6

Wandy Rodriguez rocks. I can't stop saying this, since Spring Training this year: This is Wandy's year. Another great start tonight earned him his 10th win: Seven innings, 1 run (solo homer) on 4 hits, no walks, 5 Ks. With a little over 100 pitches, it looked like Coop was going to give him the 8th too -- Wandy led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. But after El Caballo hit a grand slam, and Blum followed with another homer on the next pitch, Houston was leading 10-1 going into the eighth. Seemed like a safe time to give Wandy the rest of the night off.

That judgment came into question, briefly at least, as the Cards scored 5 in the eighth, mostly off of just-up-from-the-farm Chad Paronto. (Paronto, pitching between Wandy and Wright, looked like a giant in the land of the munchkins.) Not a fortuitous start for Paronto (4 ER on 1/3 inning puts his ERA at a whopping 108!) As the Astros' lead was whittled down to 4 runs, visions of yesterday's Twins fiasco (lost after a 10-run lead, on a bad call from the ump no less) were coming to mind...

But no harm done - the Astros put another insurance run on the board in the bottom of the eighth, and Arias pitched a perfect ninth to turn off the lights.

The Astros continued their excellent fielding - special mention goes to Geoff Blum for an acrobatic catch at third. The Cards, on the other hand, were just plain sloppy - their 3 errors were just part of an overall pattern of less-than-stellar fielding. I noticed this yesterday too - I'm not sure if it's typical, or just an oddity in a small sample of games.

With 11 runs, there are lots of players who had fun at the plate tonight. King of the RBIs is Lee, who went 1 for 5 - but that 1 was a grand slam. Pence had a second-inning 2-run homer to give the Astros an early lead that they never relinquished. Tejada continues his surge, going 2 for 3, and knocking in 3 RBIs. Bourn was 2 for 4 with another stolen base.

On the get-well-soon list: Berkman continues to sit out games, with a calf strain that persists. Matsui hit a foul ball into his own knee, and rolled around in pain for a bit. He finished his at bat, but was replaced in the next inning. He's a fragile guy. Last night Brocail pitched a scoreless inning for Round Rock. So far so good, towards a timely comeback.

Tonight's win is Wandy's 10th of the year - tying his previous season best, with more than a third of the season still to go. Wandy Rocks!

Every game we win against the first place Cards advances us a game in the standings. But let's not forget our other competition - most of whom were kind enough to lose tonight. The Cubs lost to the Phillies in 13 innings, and after 4 innings the Reds are losing to the Dodgers 9-1. Milwaukee beat the Pirates, but it was greedy to hope for the Bucs to help us out here.

In other news, Chris Sampson and his wife named their new baby Colt. What are they thinking?

Tomorrow it's Roy O vs Chris Carpenter. Should be a great game. Just hope the Astros saved some fun for the Wiz.

GAME 93: Seeing Red (Birds)

Astros 3, Cardinals 2

After a disappointing end to the Dodgers series, the Astros came home to face the division leading Cardinals. No disappointment tonight: Moehler had another in a string of good starts, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits in 6 1/3 innings. The bullpen didn't have any trouble holding the score, with a little help from the infield, that is. The trio of Matsui, Tejada, and Berkman ended both the eighth and ninth with double plays. Valverde closed to get his 10th save, earning Moehler his 7th win.

The Cardinals pitchers didn't make it easy for the Astros, who only eked out 5 hits against Kyle Lohse. Happily, one of those hits was El Caballo's fourth inning 3-run homer. With the Astros sporting special caps commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, the blast to left was quickly dubbed a "moon shot." Not much offense to work with, but with the solid pen and excellent fielding, that turned out to be enough tonight.

This is a big series for the Astros - each win against the Cards bumps them up a whole game in the standings. While the Astros were under .500, it was hard to really focus on the division race, but things have changed a lot over the past few weeks! Houston may only be 1 game over .500, but we're only 3 games out in the division, with Wandy and the Wiz taking the mound in the remaining games of this series. Meanwhile, the Cubs had gotten used to the easy life, playing the Nationals this weekend. Now moving on to a more challenging opponent in Philadelphia, they got creamed 10-1. As I'm writing this, the Pirates are leading the Brewers, and the Dodgers are ahead of the Reds (but the night is young out on the West Coast).

Roster news of the day: Puma's back in the lineup, running a bit gingerly, but hitting just fine. Erstad's on the DL with a strained hamstring, and Kata's back up from Round Rock. Sampson, on the DL, is busy focusing on a different medical situation - his wife's about to have a baby. Brocail is in Round Rock for a rehab assignment.

Fashion Statement: It's weird to see Brad Ausmus in LA blue, instead of Houston's brick red jersey, but admit it, he still looks pretty hot. I thought that I might as well cheer a bit for him in Sunday's game, but after the second RBI double, I started having second thoughts. Why couldn't he just hit into double plays? He certainly had plenty of experience doing that for us!

I'M BAAAAACCCKKKKK!

It's been a long and grueling month in the proposal tank, getting home at midnight, working Sundays... but this one is winding down, and life is getting back to normal. At least for now. I'm over a month behind my game writeups, and no, I'm not going to try to catch up. I actually did get to watch most of the games late at night on the mlb.tv archive, but writing them up was beyond my energy level.

So cut to the chase. Now that we're past the All Star Game, with our record over .500, it's time to get traditional - that is, the Astros tradition of having a humongous second half. This year that will be a bit of a challenge; we have a tougher schedule than the earlier part of the season. But since no one really knows why this team has become such a second half powerhouse, it's hard to know if that's really a major factor.

Here's where we are, a few games after the All Star Game: Out in LA, where the Astros whomped the first-place Dodgers in their first couple of games. Thursday night Wandy threw a shutout, with a little bit of help from the bullpen. Then Friday night Oswalt pitched all all-but... if Pence hadn't lost a fly ball, resulting in a third-inning triple, that game would have been a shutout as well. Last night's game was a can't-win-'em-all mess, with iffy calls from the umps, a bizarre run-scoring error by Hampton, and Coop's ejection. Today's game doesn't start for another couple of hours, giving me some down time to write in my blog and to watch Friday night's game on the archive.

Did I mention that we're over .500? After a pretty awful start to the season, capped by Berkman's worst-ever performance, things started coming together over the last month, and the Astros chipped away at the deficit, series by series. By the All Star Break, we got to .500 - no longer a losing team, for the first time since the beginning of the season. Berkman, of course, got better. Tejada's been a hitting machine - fifth in the league in batting average, first in number of hits. Oswalt started being himself. Wandy is continuing on his way to a breakout season - which I've been predicting since Spring Training. And one of my favorite success stories this season: Michael Bourn has turned into exactly what the Astros hoped when they traded Lidge to get him -- a terrific leadoff batter. He's already passed his total number of runs scored from last year, he's leading the league in stolen bases - and triples too, and has one of the league's highest averages with RISP.

Roster changes: The Astros picked up Chris Coste from the Phillies, adding another catcher to the roster. Paulino was sent down to the minors, Wesley Wright is back up from Round Rock, with Chad Paronto right behind him to replace Sampson, who went on the DL (muscle spasms). Brocail is inching his way back from his stint on the DL. Berkman has sat out the last couple of games, due to a calf strain, but it's minor and he's day to day. But Erstad might be on his way to the DL with a strained hamstring in last night's game.

So there's a fair amount of churn within the team, as the Astros head towards the July 31 trade deadline. Lots of gossip going around about trade possibilities, but none that I've heard related to the Astros. Still, who knows? Wade likes to surprise us.

Midseason predictions: We're going all the way, of course! No surprises here, for anyone who knows me. I always stay the course until we're mathematically eliminated. That's the beauty of being a fan, not a sportswriter. Seriously, though, this team has been much maligned (I've pretty much stopped reading the blog comments on Astros.com) and doesn't deserve it. With no run-away team in NL Central this year, I have to like our chances.

This will be very short...

I've been a horrible blogger. I have several partially written game write-ups that I haven't posted. I'm a couple of series behind. I can't help it - it's THAT time of year: Proposals. When you work for a federal contractor, you know the drill. At the end of the fiscal year, the government wants to spend all its moola. Use it or lose it. So they issue requests for proposals and we write proposals. Last summer was just after another. This summer looks the same. I'm not really complaining: That's how we get business. But why can't they just issue RFPs in the OFF SEASON?

I have been watching most of the ballgames. Last night after the Sabbath ended, I watched both Friday and Saturday's winning games, back to back. But I have to admit, after getting home at 10 PM tonight, knowing that the Astros lost their chance for a sweep in a blown save, I don't really feel like watching the game.

The Astros are headed out West to play a series against the Padres. Usually I hate the West Coast games - they're on so late for me, here on the East Coast, I end up staying up way too late for a work night. But since this proposal started, I've been routinely getting home halfway though the night games. At least with the Astros in San Diego, I might get to see more of the games live.

A few team notes... Blum is back from the DL. Unfortunately that pushes Maysonet back to Round Rock. Too bad - I like Maysonet. And, to make room for Paulino to come back from the DL, the Astros designated Backe for assignment. I like Paulino - he had a triumphant welcome-home party against the Tigers last night. But it's bittersweet for Backe, who's a local guy (Galveston) and who had some great times for the Astros in the past.

I'll probably have to do one big bang catch-up posting for all the games I've missed writing up, like I did when I returned from Israel. Or I guess I could just stop writing up the season... but that would be too much like admitting that they aren't going to win the pennant this year. I won't do that until they're actually mathematically eliminated.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is another day... in the proposal tank. See you on Twitter when I get home.

GAMES 63-65: Not at Home, on the Rangers Turf

June 16: Rangers 6, Astros 1

June 17: Rangers 5, Astros 3 [10 innings]

June 18: Astros 5, Rangers 3

The Astros had a disappointing conclusion to their annual Lone Star duke-it-out with the Rangers, coming within a game of being swept in the 6-game series. In Game 1, Wandy reverted to being beaten up (is he tipping pitches or not?), allowing 6 runs (including 3 homers and 6 walks) in the first 4 innings. At the same time, the Astros couldn't figure out the Rangers' Millwood, who held them to only 4 hits over 7 innings. I had hoped that the Astros would get their big chance when he was replaced by Jason Jennings, who was a complete loser when he pitched for the Astros. Unfortunately he's pitching just fine, thank you, for the panhandlers - he threw 2 scoreless innings.

There were actually several bright spots in this miserable game. The first related to Pudge Rodriguez - his solo homer in the fifth accounted for the Astros' only run. That earned him a standing O from the hometown crowd, who were feeling charitable due to a big lead and Pudge's special circumstances - he tied Carleton Fisk for the record for the most games caught. The other bright spots were the Astros' two relief pitchers who took over when Wandy was pulled after 4 innings. Arias threw 3 full scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits, no walks, and striking out 3. Byrdak finished it off with a a scoreless eighth.

Game 2 was a milestone game: Pudge broke the record for most games caught, in the town where he played for 12 years at the start of his career. But Game 2 was also annoying - the Astros really should have won it, but they didn't. They got plenty of hits (13, including 5 for extra bases), but left hundreds of runners on base (okay, an exaggeration), had runners erased by double plays, and just played sloppy baseball. (I heard that Coop raked them over the coals after the game - and forgot to congratulate Pudge on his milestone.) The most annoying thing to me was in the tenth inning, when El Caballo led off with a routine ground ball; the shortstop mishandled the ball, but since Lee didn't try to run it out, there was time for the fielder to recover and make the play. That could have cost the Astros a run, since two players later, Pence hit a long drive into deep right, which may have scored Lee - if he hadn't been sitting in the dugout.

While Pudge was celebrating his milestone, he wasn't celebrating his performance in this game. He went 1 for 5, no runs, no RBIs, and was tagged with 2 errors, both of which led to runs. (One of them looked to me like Matsui's fault.) Pence, on the other hand, had a major performance - he went 4 for 5, with two doubles, a single, and a homer. The bullpen logged a good performance, although Jeff Fulchino lost the game in the ninth. Sampson, Hawkins, and Valverde combined for no runs on 2 hits in their 3 innings.

Although the series (and the larger cross-state rivalry series) was already lost, the Astros made a good comeback in Game 3. The Rangers took an early lead off starter Brandon Backe. When I got home from work (late, I'm on a proposal), the Astros were already losing 3-1. But they picked up a run in the fifth when Quintero's RBI single plated Erstad from second. Then, in the sixth, Carlos Lee's RBI single made it a little closer. Then With the bases loaded and 1 out, the Rangers' catcher mishandled a bad pitch, allowing Tejada to score the tying run on the passed ball. Although the Astros went on to load the bases again, they failed to score any more runs in the inning. They bought a little insurance in the 8th, when Pence led off with a solo homer. Quintero singled with 2 outs, then scored on Bourn's triple. (Man, that guy is fast!)

The bullpen was excellent again in Game 3 0. Wright did the heavy lifting this time, pitching 2 2/3 hitless innings. Arias came in to finish off the seventh, retiring his one batter with a strikeout. But he was in the right place at the right time: Since the Astros went ahead on his watch in the eighth, he got the win for his troubles. Hawkins gave up a couple of hits and a walk in the ninth, but did not give up any runs in his inning. Then Valverde threw a very strong ninth to earn his 3rd save of the season - the first since his return from the DL.

Unfortunatly, the pair of losses pushed the Astros back a bit in the standings - from a recent hgh-water mark of 4 games down in the NL Central, they are now back to 6 under. It's a long season, and we're by no means mathematically eliminated, so it's still "interesting," no matter how much the pundits (and many fans) moan and grown about how it's just not our year.

Bad stat of the series: Berkman, who had been doing so much better in June, was hitless in the whole series.

Next stop: Weekend series in Minnesota.