The Houston Astros had their chances Monday night against C.C. Sabathia and the Milwaukee Brewers but they didn’t come up with the big hits like the Brewers did. The brew crew defeated the Astros 9-3 as Sabathia threw a complete game.

Randy Wolf tossed the first four innings of the game as was pulled after giving up five hits and six runs. Wolf struckout five batters and walked three others. It was not the outing that the Astros were counting on from Wolf that is for sure. The Astros bullpen also had trouble as Doug Brocail, Wesley Wright, Geoff Geary all gave up a run in relief.

Mark Loretta, Ty Wigginton, and Reggie Abercrombie all had rbi’s at the plate for the Astros. As a team however, they left 17 runners on base and struckout nine times. They had the bases loaded late in the game against Sabathia but was unable to come up with a big hit to score more then one run at a time.

All we can hope for now is a win on Tuesday.

Astros Baseball

The Houston Astros rallied on Thursday afternoon as they came from behind to beat the visiting San Francisco Giants by the score of 6-4. Lance Berkman clubbed a two run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning that broke a 4-4 tie and put the Astors up 6-4. Humberto Quintero then added another run on a single that made the score 7-4.

Darin Erstad had tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with a rbi single. Berkman finished the game with three rbi while Erstad and Geoff Blum both chipped in with one rbi each. It was nice to see more then one player contributing at the plate and that is exactly what the team has been doing during this winning streak.

Brian Moehler was the starting pitcher and he pitched into the sixth inning but was taken out after throwing 5 1/3 innings. Moehler allowed eight hits and four runs including one home run his outing as he received a no decision. LaTroy Hawkins earned the victory and is now 1-0 since coming to the Astros. Jose Valverde had no problems in the ninth inning as he recorded his 30th save of the season.

The Astros will now have a tough six game stretch as they play the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers. How do you think they will do over the next six games? I’m thinking 2-4.

Astros Baseball Blog

I just have a quick update about Wednesday’s game as I’m busy packing for a two week long conference out of state.  The Astros lost to the Reds 9-5 as they were attempting to sweep the Reds in the three game series.  The loss also ended the teams three game win streak.  I guess they will just have to start another one now!

As I mentioned earlier I will be out of town until August 12th.  I will not be able to blog about the team until I get back but I will have access to my email.  I am hoping that there is a an Astros fan out there that would like to write some game recaps while I’m away.  If you are interested, please click the contact us link at the top of the site to email me and I will reply with some more details.

Thanks everyone!

Carlos Lee hit a grand slam in the fifth inning off of Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo and the Astros went onto defeat the Reds by the score of 6-2.  The Astros have now won the first two games of the three game series and will be going for the sweep on Wednesday.  The way they are playing compared to the Reds, I think they will get that sweep!

Besides Lee going deep for the grand slam in the fifth inning, Miguel Tejada had a solo home run in the third inning.  The first run for the Astros came in the second inning when Hunter Pence tripled to deep center and Lee scored.  Those three swings of the bat were all the Astros needed because the pitchers shut down the Reds for the most part.

Brian Moehler came within one out of recording a complete game but still got the win.  Moehler pitched great as he gave up two runs on seven hits.  Moehler now has a 6-4 record on the season.  Wesley Wright came in to record the final out and record his first save of the season.

Let’s sit back and watch the Astros on Wednesday as they go for the sweep!  Astros Baseball

The Houston Astros played another bad game as they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 8-7.  It was the third straight day that the Astros lost the Pirates and they were swept in the three game series.  Now that is a very dissapointing series when you get swept by the Pirates at home.

The Astros were able to knock out Pirates starting pitcher after only three innings but they just couldn’t take advantage of the Pirates bullpen.  Mark Loretta led the Astros at the plate with two rbi and then five others had one rbi each.  Kazuo Matsui, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, Brad Ausmus, and Geoff Blum all recorded one rbi in the game.

Brian Moehler started the game for the Astros and really sucked it up as he only lasted 2 1/3 innings.  Moehler gave up nine hits and six runs and got a no decision in the game.  Geoff Geary ended up taking the loss and is now 2-2 on the year after he gave up three hits and two runs in two innings of action.

So now the Astros will be off on Thursday before they start off weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brewers have been playing some great baseball, so the Astros are going to have to bring their “A” game if they want any chance at winning a game.

Astros Baseball Blog

The Houston Astros headed into the 9th inning with a 3-2 lead but closer Jose Valverde pitched terrible and was charged with six runs and the Astros lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 9-3.  That was not the way the Astros wanted to kick off the three game series with the Pirates.  WIth the loss, the Astros are now a dissappointing 46-53 on the season.

Valverde gave up two home runs and two run single in the ninth inning.  He was also charged with two more runs when Freddy Sanchez hit a three run inside the park home run off of Tim Byrdak.  It sucked that Valverde sucked it up so bad when the other pitchers didn’t throw the ball that badly.

Runelvys Hernandez pitched the first 5 1/3 innings in the game and got the no decision.  Hernandez gave up two runs on eight hits while walking two batters and striking out three others. Geoff Geary tossed 1 2/3 innings while Doug Brocail tossed an inning of relief.  Geary and Brocail both did not allow a run score as they threw the ball good.

Carlos Lee led the Astros at the plate as he had two rbi singles in the game.  Brad Ausmus also had a rbi double to contibute.  The Astros just didn’t get the big hit at the plate as they had plenty of base runners on in the game.  The Astros stranded 30 runners on base and struckout nine times.  That is just not getting the job done when you need to come up with a big hit.

Astros Blog

An all-around great game for the Astros tonight.

Brian Moehler pitched an outstanding game. He went 7 innnings, giving up only 4 hits and one run, a solo-homerun to Jim Edmonds. He really had command of the strike zone last night, to bad he couldn’t get the win, he had to settle for the no-decision.

Carlos Lee hit a mammoth shot in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game. The Astros then got two straight hits, but could not muster another run in the inning to give Moehler the lead.

Geoff Geary came in and pitched two perfect innings to get it to the Astros in the bottom of the ninth. Miguel Tejada doubled off Howry to get the inning going. The next batter, Hunter Pence, followed with the walk-off double to seal the game.

It was great to see the Astros come out of the gate and beat the Cubs in this fashion. Hopefully it will swing a lot of momemtum our way. Who knows, maybe this is the start of our patented second half run.

Brandon Backe pitched an extremely strong game, going into the 8th inning without giving up any runs. The Astros won it in the end by the score of 5-0. Backe was the man of the day, not just because his pitching, but he also went 2-3 with a double and is now batting .345 on the year. He made a strong case to stay in the rotation today.

Ty Wigginton got the scoring going with a solo homerun in second inning. Carlos Lee had two hits again today to go with 3 RBI’s. He is now batting .302 on the year.

J.R. Towles finally got a start today, but could not get a hit. This bothers me because I don’t understand why he was brought up to sit and watch Ausmus play. This could be killing his development. He came back up and had hit safely 3 times in the 4 previous games. Why would Cooper sit him for 4 games after that? It’s not like Ausmus is tearing the cover off the ball. I would much rather try and see if Towles can pull it together, since he was supposed to be our catcher of the future. Ausmus knows he was brought back to mentor Towles, not start. I hope Cooper wasn’t surprised or dissapointed when Towles went 0-4, because I sure wasn’t.

Now we head into the All-Star break in last place with a 44-51 record. Not exactly what we had hoped for. At least we will get to watch Berkman in the Homerun Derby tomorrow night, and him and Tejada in the All-Star Game. Hopefully the rest will rejuvinate our team into a second half run. No one said I couldn’t dream…

The Astros got on the board early and then scored a total of 6 runs in the game to beat the Nationals 6-4.

Wandy Rodriguez had a good start, giving up 4 runs over 5 and a third innings. He was cruising after giving up 2 early runs, but found trouble in the 6th leaving with the bases loaded.

Hunter Pence was the man of the night for the Astros though. He went 2-3 with 3 RBI’s, including a 2-run homer. Lance Berkman also contributed with a two run double in the fifth, his 30th double of the year. Carlos Lee continued his hot streak by going 3-5 and raised his average to .299. It’s good to see him ripping the ball.

Chris Sampson and Geoff Geary came in and pitched two and two thirds of scoreless innings until Jose Valverde came in to pitch a perfect ninth inning for his 24th save.

All in all it was a good game tonight, especially since it follwed an extremely poor outing last night.

Great news today. The Astros have agreed to terms with their first round pick, catcher Jason Castro out of Stanford.

A lot of scouts have said that Castro is almost Major League ready. With the way our current catchers are performing there couldn’t be greater news than this signing. At Stanford this year Castro hit .376 with 14 homers and 73 RBI’s. It’ll be exciting to watch his progression through the system.

Another update from the conversion from pitcher to outfielder for Brian Bogusevic. He went 1-2 last night with a homerun. So far so good in the position switch. Who knows, this guy may turn out to be the next Rick Ankiel. Scouts thought he was a better hitter than pitcher coming out of college anyways. We’ll see.

Wandy Rodriguez takes the mound tonight, hoping to right the ship after a dissapointing game last night.