Roy Oswalt Owns the Reds!

Roy Oswalt owns the Cincinnati Reds. There can be no real explanation, but the fact that he has beaten the Reds 21 times and lost to the only once in his career leaves no doubt either! The Astros won the game last night, with Roy on the mound,7-4, though Oswalt only gave up one in his seven innings of work!

Brandon Is Stubborn

Brandon Backe is stubborn in his approach to hitters, especially to the dangerous hitters on the opposing teams. He does not wnat to throw them a fastball, so he nibbles with breaking pitches and offspeed pitches. Too often he walks them as he did yesterday in giving up EIGHT runs in one inning. If he does not walk them he builds up such a pitch count that he cannot stay in the game much past five innings. He needs to take a different approach and trust his stuff more than he apparently does!

Lightening in the Late Innings

Monday night we in the Houston/Galveston area were preparing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Edouard. At the same time the Astros and Cubs were playing a game in much worse weather than we saw when the tropical storm arrived! There was a 2 and a half hour rain delay that came in the sixth inning. Then in the eighth, there was a fierce lightening storm that caused the game to be stopped. The Astros won, 2-0.

Yesterday, after trailing 6-0, the Astros took a 7-6 lead on a homer by Carlos Lee, in the seventh inning. But in the bottom of the inning there was more fierce lightening, a three run homer from Alfonso Soriano, leading to a Cubs victory, 11-7!

The Right End of the Broom

The Houston Astros completed a sweep of the New York Mets yesterday, winning 4-0. Randy Wolf, the new Astros' starter went five scoreless innings. The bullpen finished the game with four strong innings. Chris Sampson has suddenly become an integral part of the pen, really shutting down the opposition in the middle innings!

Two In a Row

The Houston Astros have won their last two games, both against the New York Mets, in dramatic fashion. Last night Mark Loretta hit a grand slam to break a tie and propel the Astros to the win. Tonight, Geoff Blum got a hit with the bases loaded in the ninth, scoring the two tying runs. Then in the tenth, Darin Erstad got a sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run. Nice weekend so far!

Moving Miggy

There was apparently a lot of trade talk before the deadline about the Miguel Tejada, the shortstop for the Houston Astros. I have mixed feelings about the possibility. First, I like what Miggy adds to the team, especially the intangibles. If the team were mine, I would ask him to play third, because I believe his defense is slipping at short and he would improve the defense at third.

On the on the other hand, the team is not going to win with the current pitching staff, so if I could get some significant young arms for Tejada I believe I would have made the move.

Who Wins in The Manny Trade?

Manny Ramirez got his wish and was traded from the Boston Red Sox today before the trading deadline. I was a bit surprised, because his antics in Boston are not that new, but this time he really got on the nerves of the front office and they made a big deal today. In the three team deal, Los Angeles, the Dodgers, received Manny. In return they sent two prospects to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who also received two prime prospects from the Red Sox. The Pirates sent their best player, Jason Bay, to the Red Sox.

The Dodgers will get a lot of offense from Manny and will probably be in the playoffs. The Pirates got four players for one, two of whom are very highly regarded! The Red Sox got rid of a problem child--who can really hit. But they may not reach the playoffs. The big winner in the deal seems to me to be the Tampa Bay Rays, who should pull away from Boston in the AL East race!