As always, no PBP in the thread. If you need that try one of the game cast sites. Keep discussion to this series. If it is not about this series it goes somewhere else. 5-14 Lucas Harrell, RHP vs. Joe Blanton, RHP 6:05 on FSH 5-15 TBA vs. Cliff Lee, LHP 1:05 on FSH
Looks like both of these games may be delayed or cancelled by rain. Big storm coming through next two days.
cancelled is almost preferable right now. would rather not attempt to gain back some momentum in philly.
I just read Jayson Stark's tweet. He said Lopez has faced 76 batters this season and haven't walked a batter yet. Wow
He clearly misses Astros pitching (actually the Astros gave up the fewest HR and lowest OPS of any NL Central division team).
I'm starting to think the Astros are beginning to hit that wall where their progress just flat lines while the teams with the vets continue to get better leaving the Astros in the dust. Basically, the point where all the young kids we have started out strong early while teams are trying to get into season form but then struggle as the day-to-day grind of baseball continues with the season moving right along. For a bit there, I was thinking we might be a near .500 ballclub but I think that is just smoke and mirrors early while teams try to establish/find themselves. Obviously, the young players are going to struggle to keep pace over the course of a season. They have to figure out what it takes to be productive consistently over the course of a long season. I'm pretty much stating the obvious. But, it does seem the Astros are leveling out and the trend line may be going downward. Easy to say that after three losses in a row, though, with sputtering bats. It's always tough to lose games by one run and especially in extra innings where we have not been good so far. I hope we can stop the bleeding and pick up a few wins but some tough teams ahead.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/type/expanded We are actually 6-7 in one run games. Better than some may think. 0-4 in extra innings though Yes, we are leveling out. But I wonder this. In the early going, we were expected to be terrible, so perhaps we were not scouted much. As we improved, teams realized we were not the pushover that we were expected to be. We could beat them. So scouts were more numerously sent, weaknesses assessed, and in game adjustments made. Now the ball is back in our court in that we have to adjust to the adjustments. A young team lacking ML experience has a harder time of this. What I am hoping is that our guys work on their weaknesses that are being exploited and we return to around a .500 wining %.
