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.