Houston Astros Baseball

Wade Deserves Some Praise

In the third week of regular season play the offense Ed Wade hoped for arrived and did so in a very exciting way. Today (Tuesday) the Astros faced off against Cy young Winner Jake Peavy in what should have been a low scoring game. Instead The Astros decided to forget Peavy was a great pitcher and score some runs. For the second straight night, The Astros scored 10 or more runs and had 14+ hits. The Astros got to Peavy early with a couple of runs in the first few innings, lead by Miguel "25 not 33" Tejada, who again had 4 hits. All Astros contributed in some way offensively (Minus Bourn who sat out due to groin strain). Backe pitched pretty well until giving up a huge 3 run Hr to put The Padres up. However, that lead wouldn't last as Hunter Pence finally looked comfortable at the plate as he hit a go ahead 2 run HR to left. the offense continued as Kaz Matsui delivered clutch hits and again stole a base as The Astros took a 4 run lead into the 8th inning. This brought ex-Padre Doug Brocail into the game, despite my displeasure for that move. It has always been my personal belief that pitchers struggle against their former team the first time they face each other again and tonight was no exception. Brocail gave up 3 runs and a runner on third before even logging and out. this awful performance called Coop to pull Doug in favor of Astro Closer Valverde.

Although Valverde has struggled, he looked magnificent tonight. He struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced an eventually was awarded the win. this coming after The Astros again rallied in the bottom of the 8th, scoring 4 more runs.

I think now it is quite clear Ed Wades idea of what this offense is capable of. Even with a cold Carlos Lee and the absence of Wigginton The Astros we able consistently threaten offensively, something Astro fans haven't seen in a while.

Overall, this was a great win for The Astros. We found a way to win, again using Wade product Matsui and Tejada as a spark to this offense and hopefully carry some momentum into Cincy and pull out another series win.

Side Note: I have watched Brad Lidge the during his last couple of appearances and I have to say that he really looks good. I don't what it is, but his command is excellent with both his fastball (which is slightly slower than normal) and his slider, which still has considerable bite to it. To be fair, I would definitely prefer Valverde to Lidge, but it is nice to see a good guy like Lidge succeed in a place that would rip his head off if he didn't.



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