Yeah, I knew Springer gave up the 2 runs. I haven't been that impressed with his pitching so far. I missed the pitching by Wheeler last night....I like his stuff.
If they finish with a better record than all the other teams competing for a wild card spot, then they deserve it. If they don't, then the don't. Pretty simple. I think their schedule against good teams is probably pretty consistent with the schedules of the other teams competing against them for the wild card have done. They're even with Atlanta and Florida...they went 3-0 against Anaheim...they're 6-8 vs. the Cards...they're 7-10 vs. the Cubs. 1-2 vs. the Giants. No one beats the good teams consistently. It's a misnomer. Maybe one team a year has winning records against the top teams. That's why they're the top teams. Same thing with "good pitching." Few teams hit good pitching...that's why it's good pitching. Bottom line is their just 2 games out of a playoff spot. They had to play their asses off to get to that point, but they're there nonetheless. Despite all pre-season predictions, the Cardinals were an unseen force. Neither the Cubs, with all their pre-season run, nor the Astros were going to win the division from that team this year. They're a freaking regular season juggernaut. If we get to the playoffs, we have a shot. That's the great thing about baseball. I don't think there's anything scary about any of the starting rotations going to the NL playoffs this year. Not particularly scared of anything the Braves, Dodgers or Cards would throw at you pitching-wise. Obviously the Cards' lineup dwarfs everyone, but who knows if they'll be playing like that in the limited post-season at-bats? I think a first round matchup with the Braves would be great for Houston fans. We'll see. But I don't think it's fair to say they give us no reason to think they'll make the playoffs. The fact that they're only 2 games out gives you reason...the fact that the other teams can falter, as well, gives you reason. If you're just preparing to deal with disappointment, that's another thing.
Man I havn't been able to watch games since the start of the Pittsburgh series and everything has seemingly gone South. Let's hope Backe can get us back on track and take this series from the Cards. The Astros can still take this guys ... LETS GO STROS!
You could probably make the argument that if we won the Wild Card (meaning no Cubs or Marlins) we'de have the most formidable rotation in the NL Playoffs with a front 2 of Oswalt and Clemens.
This bit that the Astros announcers are doing with the Phil Garner action figurine is hillarious... Its so simple, yet so random... (in case you're not watching the game, somebody is taking this tiny Phil Garner player figurine and putting it different places around Busch Stadium. They had it on the Cardinal's broadcaster's TV's... they had him on the dugout steps (don't know how they got that)... and now they had him way up in the manual scoreboard in the upper deck in CF.)
we just took a series in st louis with the cardinals so there's no reason to be down. you can't realistically expect us to just win out and sweep everyone. if we keep this pace and handle ourselves against the giants we're there. hopefully the braves or marlins will knock the cubs out.
exactly...not a ton of teams have gone into st. louis this season and taken 2/3. we did when we had to.
Kent looked pretty ticked off that Berkman did not score on his 2nd double until after the error in Thursday night's game. I thought that Berkman had perhaps pulled a rock and forgotten there were two outs. I read the Chronicle story today and it turned out that Beltran had pulled up between 2nd and 3rd and Berkman had to slow down to avoid catching up to him. At times, Beltran plays like he's too athletically gifted for his own good. Once, when he barely beat a close play at the plate, Worrell was marveling at the burst he put on about halfway to home. What he neglected to mention was that if Beltran had been running harder all the way, then there would not have even been a need to slide.
