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 Houston Astros put up six quick runs on the Arizona Diamondbacks as they won 6-4 on Tuesday night.  It was a good thing they got to Diamondbacks starting pitcher Edgar Gonzalez early, because Max Scherzer then came in to make hia major league debut and struckout seven batters over 4.1 innings.

Geoff Blum had three RBI to lead the Astros at the plate.  Blum had a bases loaded double that cleared the bases in the third inning.  Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee, and J.R. Towles all had one RBI each for the Astros as well.  Tejada’s and Lee’s RBI’s came in the first inning while Towles had a RBI double in the third inning.

Starting pitcher Jack Cassel pitched 4.2 innings to get the no decision.  Cassel didn’t have his best stuff as he gave up four hits and three runs in his four plus innings of action.  Doug Brocail ended up getting his first win of the season as he pitched in relief.  Jose Valverde recorded his fifth save of the season when he shut the door on the Diamondbacks in the ninth inning.

Great win for the Astros, as they beat a red hot Diamondbacks team.  Lets see if they can do it again on Wednesday.

Astros Blog

Miguel Tejada provided the final fireworks Monday night as he hit the game winning homerun to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3.  The Cardinals had just tied the game with three runs in the top of the 9th inning before Tejada took Kyle McClellan deep.

Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, J.R. Towles, and Tejada all hit homeruns tonight.

Jose Valverde picked up the win, his second of the season. Starting pitcher Wandy Rodriguez pitched 7.1 innings and only allowed three hits on the night.  He did a very good job and kept the Cardinals off balance the entire night.

With the exciting win, the Astros record is now 3-5.  Astros Blog