The series started with Wandy against Cliff Lee, who has been hot since coming to the NL. The Astros lit him up for 6 runs in 3 innings. Wandy allowed 7 hits and 0 runs during the game. Speaking of Wandy, how bout the last few matchups for him. He hasn’t faced a cupcake opponent in a while. His last 4 stars have been Cliff Lee (5-2 NL, 12-11 Overall), Dan Haren (13-8), Adam Wainwright (15-7), and Josh Johnson (12-3). Wandy is 2-2 in these games even though he only allowed 5 combined runs.

Atlanta comes into town today to start a 3 game series. Felipe Paulino, who had a good start last time but was a bad luck loser, starts against Javier Vazquez (11-9).

The Astros find their stroke for 5 runs in last night’s game against the Cubs. Roy Oswalt threw a gem except for one inning when he gave up 2 runs. Latroy Hawkins made the game exciting giving up a solo home

run to Derek Lee in the 8th inning. Carlos Lee covered those runs with 4 runs batted in himself. He had a 2 run single as well as a 2 run homerun.

The Astros were playing spoiler last night. They will play gravedigger tonight. Tonight is a must win game for the Cubs if they want to stay in this race for wild card. Brian Moehler will be facing Randy Wells in game 2 of the series. Moehler had a good start last time we saw him giving up 3 runs in 6 innings against the red hot Cardinals. Hopefully he will continue his success on the road where he has an ERA that is more than a run and a half better on the road than at home. Randy Wells is coming off a game where he gave up 5 runs to the Nationals. That is not the team you want to give up much to. He will be looking for revenge tonight. So far this season he hasn’t given up any runs against the Astros and has an overall ERA of 3.06. So another tough night to get runs could be ahead.

The “To be Named” pitcher was named yesterday as the Astros announced Felipe Paulino will make his first start since early July. His last few starts have been pretty bad. This could be a tryout for next year and if he struggles more, he will be sent away. If he can control his almost 100 mph fastball, he could be unhittable.

The Chicago Cubs are not the team the Astros want to see right now when they are struggling as much as they are. They are 4-3 in their last 7 games. In the series opener, the Cubs send Rich Harden to face Roy. This might sound like a good game the Astros could win, but it’ll be tough. Harden has not allowed more than 2 earned runs in a game since July 10. Brian Moehler faces Randy Wells in Game 2, while the Astros send “To Be Announced” to face Ted Lilly. The dreaded “To Be Announced” means that something happened to a pitcher.

Mike Hampton has been put on the DL for the remainder of the year with shoulder and knee discomfort in both knees. He was 7-10 this season in 21 starts. That is the most starts he has had in a season since 2004. He will be a free agent after the World Series.

The only to motivate the Astros is a respectable record barring a horrific crash by the Cardinals, the playoffs are out of reach. Hopefully the September call-ups will show the Astros the future is near and we can start having consistent young guys in the big leagues next year. The Astros can’t consistently win with veteran 1 year contracts. We need JR Towles or Jason Castro to be ready soon. I will write about some of the September call-ups when they are released.

Humberto Quintero is likely the Astros starting catcher with JR Towles being brought up to be the 2nd catcher. Towles is hitting .287 for the Round Rock Express with 3 homers and 17 RBI.

There wasn’t much positive during the Giants series but there was one positive news of note. “Magic” Wandy Rodriguez won Pitcher of the Month for the NL. Wandy went 4-0 with a .75 era. He also had 34 strikeouts. He’s been a good but inconsistent pitcher in previous seasons, but this season is his first season where he has consistently been dominant. His curveball has been buckling the knees of rookies to superstars to league veterans. There aren’t many pitchers under 6 feet that have been as dominant as him but hopefully he’ll be a rock in the rotation for years to come.

The Astros start another pivotal series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. Bud Norris, coming off his near no hitter in his first start as a pitcher, will start the opener against Carlos Villanueva (2-8). Milwaukee has been struggling the past few weeks but are coming off a series win against the Dodgers. This should be a very entertaining series. I will be attending my first Astros game of the season, so I’ll be able to give you a 1st person review of the game in my next blog.

Hopefully this will inspire the Stros leading to more wins and climbing back up the ranks to a division title.

The Giants series starts tomorrow when Matt Cain faces Mike Hampton in Houston.

A few teams in the division had a very active trading season. The Cardinals added Matt Holiday to protect Albert Pujols after the Astros slowed Pujols a few series ago. Holliday has really paid off with a .500 average including a homerun. The Pirates were very active but not in the way that Pirates fans were hoping for. They sold most of their Opening Day team. Soon they will lose all their loyal fans because they were still in the race. Their fans are starting to think ownership doesn’t care about winning. The Reds acquired Scott Rolen from the Blue Jays. He used to hit very well against the Astros whenever he played for the Cardinals.

Bud Norris will start in place of an injured Roy Oswalt on Sunday against the Cardinals. He looked pretty good in relief against the Cubs. He allowed one hit in 3 innings. Hopefully Roy will only miss one start with his back injury. Lance Berkman has been placed on the DL with a calf injury. I don’t think this will be a long injury because if it was late in the season, Lance has said that he would be playing. Latroy Hawkins is also on the DL with shingles.

All these injuries have hurt the Astros psyche as they have now lost 2 straight series. They will have to recover quickly however going against the Cardinals, who the Astros swept in the first series after the All Star break.

Friday: Moehler vs Boggs
Saturday: Wandy vs Carenter
Sunday: Norris vs Wainwright

If you know the Astros, you know fully well that they are a second half team. They know something no other team knows about the second half. Every since the season they started 15-30, they have always had a second half run. This season they are positioned quite well 3 games behind the first place St. Louis Cardinals.

Wandy Rodriguez shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game back from the break. He allowed 5 hits and 2 walks. His curveball was unhittable last night. It didn’t look like it could be better until you could see the breaking ball from Alberto Arias. There was an at-bat where Arias faced Juan Pierre. He threw 4 straight curveballs for strikes that could buckle anyone’s’ knees. This was a great game to dominate because all major sports outlets were covering the game because is was Manny Ramirez’s first home game. For years they didn’t understand why San Francisco fans still loved Barry Bonds. Well, they now can have commonalities with their fellow California rival.

Roy Oswalt goes against Chad Billingsley tonight which should be a very entertaining game if you are a fan of pitching duels that last 2 hours.

How many times have you heard this statement? The Silver Boot series is tonight where the Astros face the AL 3rd place Texas Rangers. The Rangers have had a great start to the season, leading the AL West by 2 games over the Angels. In the first Silver Boot series of the year, the Astros were dominated. The Rangers got the sweep with a +9 run differential. That means the Astros have to sweep the Rangers in Arlington scoring at least 10 more runs than the Rangers in order to bring the Silver Boot back to Houston.

The first game will be Wandy Rodriguez vs. Kevin Millwood. 5 potential Astros starters have career batting averages over .300 against Millwood, but this season’s Millwood is not like the past. Millwood has a 6-4 record but holds a 2.72 era. He has thrown more than 100 pitches in all but 2 starts this season. The Astros bats have to be perfect tonight. Hopefully we can keep the bats from the D-backs series where we scored 6 runs and 8 runs in the last 2 games respectively. Wandy found his early season form last start after losing the previous 3 starts. Ian Kinsler is the only Rangers starter with a significant number of at bats to have success against Wandy with a .700 average. Carlos Lee should be back tonight after missing the last few games due to injury.

The second game puts Russ Ortiz against Matt Harrison, who is coming off 2 rehab starts. He gave up 1 run in 4 innings in his last start Thursday. This has the makings of a shootout. Overall, Harrison is 4-4 this season with an era over 5.00. He started the season having control problems and allowing many walks. His walks have gone down since then, but his earned runs have stayed the same. 6 of his 9 starts he has allowed 4 or more runs. Russ Ortiz has struggled in a few starts this season, which put him in the bullpen. His last start however was last week, in which he went into the 6th inning allowing 0 runs. He hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 19.

The last game of the series puts 2 veterans against each other…Roy Oswalt vs. Vicente Padilla. Padilla is 4-1 in his last 5 starts with a 3.82 era. He is not a strikeout pitcher but he gives up a few walks. If the Astros have patience, they could get a few people on base. Oswalt has been showing signs of improvement and returning to his usual self. We need him if we want the Silver Boot.

Even though we have to sweep the series, we have a chance because we have our 2 best pitchers going. The Rangers have also had trouble scoring runs lately. Hopefully we’ll win the first 2 games at least to make the finale an interesting and entertaining end.