On to Chicago

A major league baseball season can be so frustrating. One day you eat the bear...the next the bear eats you. Uh, probably that was a poor choice of metaphors since the Astros are now in the city of the Bears although they will have to deal directly with the baby version--the Cubs--starting Monday night.

The Cubs are ferocious enough. They are now where the pre-season polls all said they would be. They are in first place in the National League Central. OK its not by much of a margin--only a half game over the Cardinals, but still first place.

If the Astros could have beaten the Mets AND then won tonite THEY would have been in first place on Tuesday morning. But that brings mind another old adage, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts..."

No doubt a number of Astro fans who were cautiously starting to believe lost some of their faith on Sunday. I don't think Sunday is supposed to be the day people lose faith, but for baseball reasons maybe some did.

The Astros had won four straight including that sweep of the Cardinals. The severely decimated Mets were coming to town. And after the Astros actually won the game that was considered a long shot on Friday the let down on Saturday and Sunday was extreme.

But to pull out yet another old bromide from a famed Astro of the near past, "That's baseball."

Now the Astros have to get rolling again behind the two aces of the pitching staff, Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez. The way Manager Cecil Cooper has things set up both Wandy and Roy will have two starts each on this seven game foray into the heart of the Central Division here in Chicago and later in St. Louis. That should be a very good thing. If the Astros can just win four of seven--regardless which games go their way-- the trip will be a success, although not enough so for them to take over first place.

Its probably hard to believe right now, but the Astros DID win four of six on their last homestand. It just came to a grinding halt when they lost the last two to the Mets. Both were not well pitched. But both were team losses. The offense was missing on Saturday and on Sunday only played the first inning. The three runs scored in the first likely could have been more but for some daring (or foolish) base running. Three Astros, Carlos Lee, Chris Coste and Geoff Blum are not sure bets to score on any single from second base. Even a poor throw wasn't enough to get Blum home in the first. That was one out. Hunter Pence, who has a poor stolen base percentage, being thrown out was another. So, when I said team losses we might include coaching as part of the team, too.

OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS
Watching both the losses a couple things came to mind. Alberto Arias looks like the amount of work he is getting may be tiring him. Cecil Cooper downplayed that idea following the game Sunday after Arias had his poorest outing of the year allowing 3 runs and five hits in two innings. That had been preceeded by three his in one inning on Friday and outings in four of the last six games. Coop said Arias was just up with some pitches. Of course, baseball people know that when a pitcher is "up" it often is caused by fatigue.

The Astros will have Chris Sampson on Monday since he is back from the DL. Good thing, too, since a published report on Astros.com says LaTroy Hawkins back problems have driven him to have an MRI. The club has not confirmed that officially yet, but Brian McTaggart has reported it to be true. It IS known that Hawk has not been feeling physically sound for some time, but has been trying to pitch through it.

Another wonder, especially after his performance, was why Pudge Rodriguez was catching on Sunday-a day game after a night game--somewhat rare for catchers and especially 37 year old ones.

Pudge struck out three times and grounded out for the final out of the game. He also made an uncommonly poor throw to second base on a stolen base by Cory Sullivan and picked up an error when Sullivan advanced to third.

We know of no injury to Humberto Quintero since he was out early on Saturday making throws to second base. Pudge may have simply been playing because his bat had been hot. Whether it was Livan Hernandez or Father Fatigue something cooled that bat to ice on Sunday.

WHAT IS AHEAD
The road ahead this week is very tough and very important. A bad week and the club could fall enough behind never to recover. Or perhaps even a bad week can still be overcome. There is enough time. However, tempting fate usually results in failure. Winning is the best idea. Let's see if the Astros can pull it off.

GAME TIMES
Monday and Tuesday are night games. Astros Live Pregame with Bart Enis hosting starts at 6:30pm on Fox Sports Houston. Game time is set for about 7:10. Wednesday and Thursday are day games at 1:20 with Astros Live Pregame at 12:30pm. Friday will be on FS Houston, but both Saturday and Sunday's games from St. Louis will be aired on Channel 20 in Houston.