Man, & on a wild pitch! Hey, I'll TAKE IT! Let's hope the ghosts don't crowd Lidge's fragile, eggshell mind tonight!
Forget the fire sale. Question is ... is Oswalt going to pitch a complete no-run game???? 8 IP, 5H, 0 ER.
UH OH!.. Here we go again...LIDGE!!!~!!!! Please find your zone Lidge! This is a major pick me up for you....
Lidge absolutely cannot have a hang over from the world series for the Astros to have a shot this year. Lets go Lights Out!
need lidge to pull this one out so he doesn't have mental issues for the first 2 months of the season
pitcher dominate, hitters manage to give him one run, closer gave fans a scare but still manage to pull it off........ looks like a world series season to me
Some thoughts on today’s opener – As people have already mentioned, this looked very reminiscent of last season, as our weak offense found a way to squeak out a run while dominant pitching held down the fort. I’m well aware this is only one game (and that we were up against Dontrelle Willis, one of the league’s best) but this pattern won’t cut it this year – the loss of Clemens hurts the staff enough to where our offense will need to show a definitive improvement in order to have a shot at the division. Scratching and clawing for one or two runs might work out when Oswalt and Pettite are on the mound, but we’re gonna need to support the other guys with at least 4 to 5 runs a game, in my opinion. As to where this improvement will come from – I haven’t seen enough of Preston Wilson to know how much of improvement he would be over Chris Burke in left field. And really, we haven’t seen enough of Chris Burke, either. I’m hoping we see an improvement in the quality of at-bat’s from Jason Lane, although today wasn’t encouraging. Same hope for Willy Taveras – today, as with last season, he found ways to get on base without having particular good plate appearances or swings at the ball. Can’t really complain when he had two hits though. As for the rest of the guys, I don’t really see them being all that much better. I think Ensberg peaked last year and will put up similar numbers for the next couple seasons. Berkman will have better cumulative numbers from playing a whole year and not having to work back into shape on the fly. Biggio will give another admirable effort despite his age, and I think we know what to expect from Everett and Ausmus by now. And I hate to say this, but I think Berkman and Ensberg need to be LESS reserved at the plate and take some more swings As our best offensive players, we need them driving in the runs. I love their plate discipline and ability to work a walk, but sometimes I think we have a better chance with those two hacking at potentially questionable pitches as opposed to drawing walks and relying on Wilson and Lane to be our run producers.
As proven time and time again, great pitching beats mediocre hitting, and the Astros are capable of beating mediocre relievers. Worked all of last year, and it worked tonight.
Well we were playing a minor league all-star team today. I mean outside of Miguel Cabrera, are all of those guys fresh out of the minor leagues? I just hope the offense picks up because we shouldve learned our lesson from last year.
I think the offense will pick up. Remember, the team was only really anemic at the plate through the first few months. We have a healthy and seasoned team this year. That said, this win speaks volumes as to where this team has been and what they had to do to get there. It had an intense, playoff feel, solid pitching on both sides, runners lob, scrappy play and nailbiting tension to the very end, resulting in a victory for the good guys. A year ago I don't see them winning a game like this... but now, shoot this is the norm for them. I'd say that's a pretty good thing and one reason they got as far as they did. But yeah, conventional wisdom says with the loss of Clemens they need to produce more runs. I think they're capable. And I like Berkman and Ensberg's discpline at the plate. It's that patience that'll allow them to draw a favorable count a good pitch to pounce on rather than wasting an at bat by hacking away. Lane is an example of what happens when you start swinging at anything. He shows a little more patience, he can be just as dangerous as the former two.
