I'm really looking forward to Lane being a big-time run producer for the rest of the year... he is starting to approach his career minor league averages, and if you take out his horrible May, he's been steadily getting better. Also, he actually did homer in last year's playoffs... so we've got four guys (Ensberg, Berkman, Lane, Lamb) who had real playoff success last year. I know a couple of them had super-small sample sizes, but you have to squeeze out all the good you can... especially since our lineup is going to be the thing that everybody points at come playoff time.
For all those times we complain about it, mark the date... We're actually doing pretty well against a young quality left-handed pitcher who we've never faced before. I don't think I can count on one hand how many times that's happened for the Astros in all my years watching them.
Duke has got quality stuff... as I said, I'm suprised we've hit the ball as well as we have so far (all of them have been solid hits too... and Burke just lined out a screamer right at the third baseman). At least Morgan didn't go down looking again... I can take the fly-out, but I can't stand it when he looks at that third strike.
Nick....Morgan also hit the pitch damn hard before that flyout. I thought he had the Grand Slam. It was a monster foul ball.
why are the pirates' pitchers getting more respect than roy oswalt? oswalt threw a curve called a ball to open up against a batter the last inning a good 2 or 3 inches higher than what was just called strike 2 on ensberg. and duke was getting both corners. i'm sick of the borderline strikes getting called on our hitters on crucial counts.
that guy was out on my slow motion tivo replay of the slow motion replay. willy would've been called out. and it ended up costing us a run and roy a possible win.
I have a feeling that he's still suffering from some of the "dead arm" syndrome.... primarily because he no longer guns his fastball up there at 95-96. He still gets it to 93-94, and sometimes at 95-96, but its not the same fastball that he normally can use to beat people. Over the last three games, teams have been able to either put the fastball into play, or foul it off... making him have to rely more on his off-speed stuff. The problem is, his off-speed stuff is so good BECAUSE of his great fastball. He's always used his slow-curve as a sort of changeup... and guys swing thru it not so much because of the "curve", but because its so slow. Hopefully, he and Ausmus will get it figured out... but its pretty clear that Roy isn't feeling as good as he was the previous 2 months of the season.
i'm a little disappointed biggio couldn't walk so we could leave the bases loaded again. a 4-1 lead with roy oswalt on the mound at home against the freakin' pirates in a game where we have 10 hits and 5 BB's isn't supposed to turn into a game we're about to lose.
