At Least They Didn't Lose Ground-- Much!

In one of her Tweets Astro Director of Digital Media--and occasional FS Houston analyst Alyson Footer called the game with the Mets Saturday night, "an old fashioned stinker." Correct, of course, but many of those in the sold out crowd may have had stronger thoughts.

After all, the scoreboard was showing the Cardinals 14-6 loss to the Phillies all night. That meant had the Astros won they would have begun Sunday only a half game behind the Cards. The Cubs with their win over Chicago gain that honor, but the Astros are still only 1 1/2 back. So they didn't lose ground to the Cards. The Cubs simply passed them. Oh, and I guess the Cards probably were calling their game a "stinker" too.


Bottom line is that the Astros can still win another series with a victory on Sunday before they hit the road to both Chicago and St. Louis this week. Four of the seven games will be pitched by the Wandy Rodriguez-Roy Oswalt duo. There won't be any "stinkers" in those four unless the Cubs or Cards are doing the stinking.

Some of what makes a "stinker" is almost unavoidable. For instance, Chad Paronto has not been good in his two appearances with the Astros this year. He is the guy who goes in games with huge leads and not much left to play OR...as was the case Saturday in games when the club trails by a large margin with the odds against them. In both cases it saves the members of the bullpen who will have to work in close games. In Chad's case the fact that Chris Sampson was expected to be activated from the DL on Sunday and he was really an "extra" pitcher since he would be the man returned to Round Rock made it even more a cinch he would be used.

No one who bought a ticket or stayed with us on FS Houston is happy with the night. Heck, I started writing this before "the last man was out." We HATE games like Saturday night. Some of it is for selfish reasons. The post game clubhouse has fewer accessible players. The Manager is usually in a foul mood and wishes he didn't have to meet the media. Our post game talent can only say so much about a game like this and likely won't have as much clubhouse interview support to help the show.

But there WAS one bright spot on Saturday. It was the debut of "Spotlight-Miguel Tejada" on FS Houston. It aired twice, but will have other airings. Please check the listings and make sure you catch the story of a very poor boy in the Dominican Republic who made it in baseball and was able to take his whole family out of poverty forever. Great job by Patti Smith and Max Mejia.

In the meantime...baseball moves on... Saturday's debacle is over... 12:30pregame and 1:05 first pitch as the Astros try to take the series from the Mets on Sunday. All on Fox Sports Houston. Then its off to Chicago and St. Louis for a a very big week of baseball out of town.