Well the Astros pulled one out against the Pirates tonight after disappointing losses in the first two games of the series.

Before the game the Astros activated Kazuo Matsui from the disable list by designating Chad Reinke, who was only called up for barely a day.

Now on to the game…The night started off great with a three-run homerun from Geoff Blum, who was starting at shortstop to give Miguel Tejada a day off. Brad Ausmus provided an RBI single later in the first to make it 4-0 after the first.

Brian Moehler had a decent start, giving up 4 runs over 6 innings. Pitching through the 6th inning gave the Astros exactly what they needed. The Astros rewarded Moehler with 2 runs in the top of the 7th on a Hunter Pence groundout and a Kazuo Matsui double. This proved enough to give Moehler the victory, as he moves to  5-4 on the season.

Chris Sampson had another strong showing out of the bullpen, pitching two scoreless innings to get it to Jose Valverde for the save.

Another good sign from the game is Michael Bourn went 2-5. If he can start hitting with some consistency, this offense could really pick it up. When this team hits, there is no doubt we can contend. With our pitching. though, we need the offense to be rolling all the time, which is hard to expect.

Some other news is that Oscar Villareal does not want to accept his assignment to AAA Round Rock. The Astros have until Friday to either release or trade him. We’ll see what Ed Wade will do about that.

Everyone say a prayer to the basball gods that someone sends us an ace for our rotation…

The Astros lost 4-3 tonight in a 6 hour game, which over 3 hours of it was waiting out the rain.

Brandon Backe had a strong start, allowing no runs over 4 innings before the rain started. In the top of the fourth Hunter Pence smashed a homer over the center field fence to go up 1-0. After coming back from a two and a half hour rain delay, Carlos Lee hit a 2-run homerun in the fifth inning. Unfortunately, since the long delay, Backe was unable to continue pitching. As far as offense, that is all the Astros would muster.

The Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Nate McLouth hit a homer off of Dave Borkowski. Then in the 8th inning Doug Brocail came in to try and get the hold, but could not finish the inning. He gave up a solo homerun to Adam LaRoche, and then lost the lead by giving up a bases loaded single to Nate McLouth. Jose Valverde had to come in the finish the inning. In the ninth inning the Astros couldn’t do anything to save the game when Miguel Tejada grounded out to the pitcher with Michael Bourn on second base.

It was tough loss to swallow for the Astros, as they had a lead the whole game and through all the rain delays. This team needs some sort of shakeup, because these kind of losses add up and take a toll on a team. I know winning makes a lot of people happy, but what happened to the happy-go-lucky Astros of May? They used to look like they enjoyed every minute of their job, but not anymore. Let’s hope Ed Wade can do something in the next couple of weeks to get this team going in the right direction.

Two days after Milwaukee acquired C.C. Sabathia from the Indians, the Cubs have traded for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from Oakland.

The Cubs sent Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, and Josh Donaldson to the A’s in return for the two pitchers. I don’t know too much about Donaldson, but he is supposed to be a quality catching prospect. I think this trade is pretty lopsided in favor of the Cubs, with the only risk the Cubs are taking is that Harden stays healthy. I’m surprised Oaklands GM Bean would take so little. I thought he wanted a bounty almost as much as he got for Dan Haren. If Harden can stay healthy the Cubs have a great 1-2 punch in him and Carlos Zambrano for the next 2 years at least.

The recent trades of the Brewers and Cubs has to make the Astros think about their plan going forward. The Cubs will stay good for awhile, but the Brewers seem to be trying to win this year, even if they lose Ben Sheets and Sabathia next year. In my opinion, I believe we should stop thinking about this year and focus on building for the future. Even if we made the playoffs this year, and that’s a big if, I can’t see us making it deep.

The Astros need to do something to keep up with their division rivals because the Cardinals are still good, and the Reds are only getting better. It would be nice to see some good trades before the deadline. We made some this winter to try and win now, and that hasn’t worked. It is time for plan B.

Hopefully I’ll have a nice game review to write tonight, stay tuned…

On a day when the Astros needed a big start from Runelvys Hernandez , because of the 17 inning game on Sunday night, they got just the opposite. In only 4 innings Hernandez gave up 10 runs on 13 hits and 4 walks.

In the top of the first Carlos Lee hit a 2-run homerun, followed by an RBI single by Ty Wigginton that put the Astros up 3-0 early. That lead did not last long as Hernandez gave up 4 runs in the bottom half of the first on four straight singles. After giving up two more runs in the second inning it looked like the Astros were done. In the top of the fourth the Astros came roaring back with four runs to take a 7-6 lead. Hernandez helped himself out with an RBI bunt single and Lance Berkman came through with an RBI double to headline the inning. What little hope that inning brought was crushed mintues later in the bottom of the fourth when Hernandez gave up another 4 runs to end his night.

Neither offenses did much after the first four innings. Recently called up Chad Paronto came in and threw four shutout innings in relief, giving up one hit and issuing one walk. If there is any positives to take away from this game it would be the strong showing of Paronto.

Kazuo Matsui should be coming off the disable list today, and my best guess would be that Runelvys Hernandez will be sent back down to AAA. He has shown some good stuff, but he needs to work on being consistent. His fastball has reached 96 mph on the radar, so I hope he can get it together and be a solid back-end rotation guy for us sometime.

Here’s to hoping Brandon Backe can come through tonight with a good start, because if he doesn’t, his future doesn’t look to bright either…

The Houston Astros ran into a buzz saw in the name of Hiroki Kuroda on Wednesday night as Kuroda pitched seven scoreless innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Astros 4-1.  The Astros just couldn’t get anything going against Kuroda.  When they did score a run in the bottom of the ninth inning it was a little too late to make a difference.

Cliff Lee hit a solo home run in the ninth inning for the Astros only run.  There really isn’t anything else to blog about on the offense.

Runelvys Hernandez dropped to 0-2 on the season after pitching five innings and giving up six hits and four runs.  Hernandez struck out four batters but gave up a two run home run as well.  Dave Borkowski pitched two scoreless innings while Tim Byrdak and Chris Sampson both pitched one scoreless inning each.

The Astros will need to win on Thursday to salvage a split in the series with the Dodgers.

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The Houston Astros lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-6 in 11 inning of action on Tuesday night.  Astros relief pitcher Wesley Wright gave up a solo home run to Jeff Kent that proved to be the game winning hit and run for the Dodgers.  Wright took the loss for the Dodgers and is now 3-3.

Wandy Rodriguez started on the mound for the Astros and pitched five innings.  Rodriguez got the no decision after giving up six hits and five runs while walking four batters and giving up one home run.  Oscar Villarreal gave up one run in the sixth inning as he pitched in relief of Rodriguez.  Tim Byrdak and Geoff Geary pitched three combined scoreless innings after Villarreal left the game.

Ty Wigginton had the big hit for the Astros as he hit a three run home run in the sixth inning.  Hunter Pence had a rbi single in the first inning that scored Michael Bourn.  Carlos Lee got into the rbi column with a rbi double in the seventh inning but that would be the Astros final run of the game.

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The Houston Astros only had six hits in the game but they made sure that they all meant something as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers by the score of 3-1.  Roy Oswalt pitched six innings and limited the Dodgers to only one run in the game and the offense did just enough to get the victory.

Oswalt gave up a rbi sac fly in the first inning to James Loney of the Dodgers but after that he settled down and when he had to he worked his way out of all the jams he got himself into.  Oswalt struck out nine batters over six innings of action.

Chris Sampson, Wesley Wright, and Jose Valverde all pitched in relief of Oswalt.  Valverde ended up picking up his 22nd save of the season.

Brad Ausmus led the Astros at the plate as he delivered in the fourth inning with a two run single.  Prior to Ausmus’s two run single, Mark Loretta had a rbi single in the fourth inning.  Lance Berkman hit his 22nd home run in the first inning when he took Eric Stults deep.

Astros will now try to go up 2-0 in the series on Tuesday night.  Astros Blog

** We should mention that Roy Oswalt left the game after six innings, but no reports have been released as to what kind of injury it is **  Let’s hope it isn’t to bad and he can make his next start.

Wandy Rodriguez threw a fabulous game on Thursday night as he pitched eight innings against the Texas Rangers and the Astros defeated the Rangers by the score of 7-2.  Rodriguez dominated the Rangers lineup as he only gave up five hits and one run while striking out nine batters and picking up the victory.  Rodriguez is now 3-3 on the season.

Oscar Villarreal gave up one run in the ninth inning as he wasn’t able to shut down the Rangers in the ninth inning.

Hunter Pence had a three run triple in the first inning to lead the Astros at the plate with three rbi.  David Newhan then had a two run double in the second inning as the Astros went up 5-0.  The Astros weren’t done scoring in the second inning as Newhan then scored on a infield single by Lance Berkman.  Carlos Lee then singled in Berkman for the final Astros run of the game.

The Astros have a huge series coming up against the Boston Red Sox starting on Friday.  I have a feeling the Astros will lose two of three games. What do you think Astros fans?

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The Houston Astros had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning but were not able to push across any runs and they lost to the Texas Rangers by the score of 3-2.  Miguel Tejada grounded out to end the game when the Astros had the bases loaded.  That was a tough way to lose a game, especially to the instate rivals.

Roy Oswalt took the loss for the Royals after pitching seven inning.  Oswalt gave up seven hits and all three runs.  The one hit that really hurt him was a two run home run by Max Ramirez in the fourth inning.  Chris Sampson did a good job as he pitched the final two innings and only gave up one hit while not allowing a run to score.

The Astros offense had ten hits in the game but they only scored two runs.  Both of those runs came in the second inning when Michael Bourn hit a two run home run.   You can look at one state in the box score and see why the Astros lost this game.  They left 20 runners on base.  When you leave 20 runners on base you don’t deserve to win in my opinion.

Wandy Rodriguez will battle Kevin Millwood and the Rangers on Thursday for the series win.  How do you think Wandy will throw?  Leave us a comment and let us know!

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The Houston Astros were able to come away with a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.  It was a close game all game long so it was really nice to see the Astros come away with the victory and start the big series with the Rangers off with a win.

Lance Berkman had the big hit for the Astros as he connected on a two run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Those two runs were some nice insurance runs as the Rangers came right back and score two runs in the to of the ninth inning.  Ty Wigginton and Humberto Quintero had the other two rbi for the Astros at the plate.

Brian Moehler started the game for the Astros and pitched 6 1/3 innings as he gave up five hits and one run.  Moehler struck out five batters while walking only one in the game.  He improved to 4-3 on the season with the victory.

The bullpen did a good job up until the ninth inning when Jose Valverde gave up a two run home run that brought the Rangers to within one run.  Valverde was finally able to settle down and finish off the Rangers and pick up his 19th save of the season.

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