The Houston Astros were blown out by the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night by the score of 14-2. This is a game that the Astros just need to forget about and start thinking about Thursday’s game. The Astros have now lost three games in a row as they are having trouble staying in the wild card race.

Brandon Backe was terrible on the mound as he only lasted 1 2/3 innings. Backe gave up six hits and five runs including two home runs in the game. Backe took the loss after getting shelled and is now 9-13. The bullpen wasn’t very good either as Jack Cassel gave up one run, Fernando Nieve three runs, and Dave Borkowski five runs. It was a bad night to be a Astros pitcher.

The only offense for the Astros on the night came from Hunter Pence. Pence hit two solo home runs in the game. I can’t really fault the offense to much however as the pitching staff put the offense in a huge hole.

Thursday’s game is pretty much a must win in my opinion. If the Astros lose Thursday’s game, I think you can pretty much pack things in.

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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 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.

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…

Recap: It was all about the long ball in Houston’s Wednesday night loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Astros hit a total of three home runs from players Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee and Ty Wiggington.

However, the Brewers managed to rough up Brandon Backe early and send him to his third strait loss. Backe has been hit extremely hard in his last three starts, going 0-3 with an 8.40 ERA. The Brewers combined for a total of 5 homeruns against the Astros struggling pitching. The Astros now lead the league in surrendering long balls to opposing teams.

Wednesday’s game also feature some fireworks when both Cecil Cooper and catcher Brad Ausmus were tossed from the game for arguing a series of very questionable calls from first base umpire Angel Campos.

Note: The Astros most recent call-up Reggie Abercrombie took advantage of his first time being inserted in the starting lineup going 2 for 4.

Next Up: It doesn’t get any easier for the Astros as they go up against Milwaukee’s ace Ben Sheets (6-1) in Thursday afternoon’s rubber match. The Astros will be sending Brian Moehler to the hill (3-2) to counter.

RECAP: Brandon Backe got the call to start tonight’s game and didn’t disappoint the sellout crowd, tossing 7 and 1/3rd excellent innings to pick up his fourth win of the year. Backe dominated the powerful Phillies lineup, striking out six while walking only one. The one run he gave up came off a solo homer from Pat Burrell early in the game. Doug Brocail relieved Backe in the 8th inning, getting two key outs while working his way through the Phillies most dangerous hitters to hold Philadelphia scoreless that inning. Astros closer Jose Valverde entered the game in the 9th inning and, in a frightening moment, was struck on the side of his face by a liner off Pedro Feliz’s bat. Valverde was down for several minutes but stood up and, amazingly, stayed in to finish the game. He gave up two earned runs, one due to the liner he took to the face, but induced a fly ball to center to nail down the save, giving the Astros a hard-fought 4-3 win.

At the plate, Ty Wigginton had his second multi-hit game in a row, knocking a single and a double. J.R. Towels recorded his first hit of the series and later scored on a Michael Bourn single. Lance Berkman ripped a triple into the right-field corner and scored on a sac-fly off the bat of Carlos Lee. While Backe contributed at the plate with an infield single and a sacrifice bunt, the night’s biggest offensive star was Hunter Pence, who smacked a pair of homers, one to far right field and the second a titanic blast that banged off the facade over the Landry’s Crawford Boxes in left field.

THOUGHTS: The Astros combined stellar pitching with timely hits and aggressive base running to take this second game. Seeing Bourn and Towels both record clutch hits late in the game is a great sign, keep your eyes on them in the coming games.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Brandon Backe; 7 & 1/3rd IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 hit at the plate.

ASTROS RECORD: 28-22 (.560)

The Houston Astros were going for the three game sweep against the Washington Nationals but they came up short on Thursday night.  The Nationals avoided the sweep as they beat the Astros 8-3.

Brandon Backe took the loss to drop to 2-4 on the season.  Backe pitched six innings and gave up six hits and four runs in the game.  Oscar Villarreal gave up three runs while Wesley Wright gave up another run.

Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence, and Ty Wigginton all had one rbi each for the Astros.  The Astros weren’t ablt to string together three or four hits in a row to have a big inning and that is why they lost the game in my opinion.  They just couldn’t come up with that big hit when they needed it as they left 21 runners on base.

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The Houston Astros gave up four runs in the eigth inning to let the San Diego Padres back in the game, but then they quickly came right back and got those four runs back and went onto beat the Padres 11-7 on Tuesday night.

Kaz Matsui had a single in the eigth inning that scored the go ahead runs as he finished with two RBI on the night.  Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman, and Hunter Pence all had two RBI as well.  Darin Erstad, Carlos Lee, and Geoff Blum all had one RBI.  Blum and Pence both hit long balls for the Astros.

On the mound for the Astros, Jose Valverde picked up the win to improve his record to 3-1 on the season.  It was nice to see Valverde not blow a game!  Brandon Backe had started the game and pitched seven innings while giving up four hits and three earned runs.  Doug Brocail sucked it up as he gave up four hits and four earned runs while only recording one out in relief of Backe.

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The Houston Astros got hammered by the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday afternoon by the score of 10-2.  The Astros fell behind 3-0 after the first inning and were already down 6-1 after the fourth inning.  Once a team gets in a big hole like that, it takes a lot out of them and they have a hard time coming back.  That is exactly what happened to the Astros against the Phillies.

Brandon Backe only lasted three innings as he gave up ten hits, six runs (five were earned), two walks and two strikeouts.  Oscar Villarreal and Jose Valverde both gave up two earned runs as well.  I don’t think Valverde’s head is in the right place as he has really sucked it up the last two games.

Miguel Tejada and Carlos Lee both went deep for the Astros.  Both home runs were solo shots and that was the only offense that the Astros could come up with.

** It was also mentioned that Miguel Tejada is actully 33 not 31 like most teams had thought.  ESPN.Com is reporting that they have seen his real birth certificate that states he is 33.  Tejada told the Astros the truth, that he really is a couple years older then he had told teams before.**

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