Actually, I believe you are incorrect, since Berkman got healthy and the Astros pitchers did as well, I think the Astros have the better record from June onward. I think the Astros and Cardinals match up very well, we have slightly better pitching, and they have slightly better hitting. Gonna be close. Outside of Pujols, I don't think anyone on that team is a game changing threat. And if the Astros hitters would have been patient last night instead of hacking at every low ball Carpenter tossed up there, they could have gotten to him early. We were one big hit away with the bases loaded and our best hitter at the dish...he failed.....maybe tonight he won't. DD
This is your strike zone This is your strike zone if you're Jason Isringhousen pitching against the Astros... any questions?
what we need is for the Chronicle to do another tomb stone story about how this series is over and the Astros don't have a chance. IT'S OVER!!!! RIP Now, let's get back in this f-ing thing dammit. We can't afford to go down 0-2 to this club.
I forgot about him - yeah, he wouldn't have been a bad choice. While I know Astacio pitched yesterday, I really do think we're going to miss Luke Scott somewhere in this series. Our bench right now is Palmeiro, Bruntlett, Viz, Bagwell, Burke, and Chavez. There's not a single legitimate power option on the bench. Scott at least has legitimate HR power in there. Hopefully I'm wrong!
My thoughts from last night: 1. I still have no idea what Viz was doing up there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when he stepped into the box. 2. We missed opportunities -- Captain Obvious 3. I'm actually encouraged. We had opportunities...we hit the ball hard...and it just didn't work out. They can't throw Carpenter every night. I said it would be GREAT to win one of these first two. I like our chances tonight. But if we don't win tonight...it will be just like we started the series last season...and that came down to a Game 7. 4. Isringhausen is ours. He's going to blow a save against us. I'm very encouraged by how well we seem to do against him.
They don't match up well with the Cardinals as their season record vs. the Cardinals would attest. Plus the Astros were I believe 26th in offense. The key difference to me is that Cardinal pitchers don't take the mound knowing that they have to pitch a virtually perfect game in order to get a win while Astro pitchers know that giving up 2 or more runs can doom them. Once Pettite gave up those 2 runs, the Astros were basically sunk because they played right into the Cardinals' hands. Being down 5 runs to the Cardinals is vastly different from being down 5 runs to the Braves because the Braves bullpen is by far the weaker of the two. I'm not blaming anyone because the Astros are what they are (well maybe I'm blaming Hunsiker). Their farm system has simply not produced enough good offensive players in recent years. Hopefully Purpura will be able to correct this imbalance. Living in Dallas, one of my favorite laments is that if we could somehow combine the Ranger position players: Blalock, Teixeira, Young, Delucci, Mench, even Soriano with the Astros pitching staff, we'd have a serious World Series contender.
I heard on the radio this morning that Pettite was hit by a line drive yesterday during BP, and his knee was black and blue and swelled up. Hopefully it doesn't affect his next start, but it could have contributed to why he wasnt very sharp last night.
It boggles the mind that your starting pitcher for Game 1 of the NLCS is anywhere near batting practice.
Dude that was so true, and total BS! Isringhousen was getting all the low and outside calls. That at bat against lane was horrible. those balls were closer to his ankles then his knees.
That is what I was thinking too...what is he doing running the bases while Roy ( our game 2 starter ) is hitting? Makes no sense. DD
Like dude, I'm not blaming anyone. I think it's a testiment to their tenacity that they are in the NLCS. But that said, you have to admit that the Cardinals have the better TEAM. We can all hope that somehow, someway the Astros can break through here but we must not overlook the fact that the Astros face a huge task in getting past this team. It can be done but it won't be easy.
