As Stros fans bask in the warm glow of the Stros’ decisive victory over the Braves yesterday in the first game of their National League Divisional Series, ponder this — in games in which the Stros score at least six runs, their record is an astounding 48-4, which computes to a .923 winning percentage.
Stated simply, the Stros are nearly unbeatable if they score at least six runs in a game.
Two of the premier pitchers of this era — the Stros’ Roger Clemens and the Braves’ John Smoltz — hookup in tonight’s second game (tropical storm weather permitting) in Atlanta.

Didn’t we just preview a series between these two teams?
For the fifth time in less than a decade, the Stros and the Braves — two of the most successful National League clubs during that era (see this timely Wall Street Journal ($) interview with Atlanta GM John Schuerholz) — meet in a post-season playoff series. The Braves have won three of the previous series, but the Stros won the one that means the most to this series — i.e., the most recent one last season.
Interestingly, both the Stros and the Braves are a different type of club than they were last season, and they are quite similar teams. Each team has several strong hitters, but both clubs are below average hitting-wise overall with the Braves being slightly stronger in that department. Similarly, both teams have strong pitching staffs, although the Stros are stronger than the Braves in that department. Overall, both clubs have a combined RCAA/RSAA score of around 70, so these are evenly-matched clubs. Indeed, the Braves won just one more game than the Stros during the regular season.

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According to the Boston Herald, Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon did not realize that he had accidentally received a Houston Astros Division Series cap Sunday afternoon until someone pointed it out to him during a live television interview:

“I saw the star, and I just thought it was a different (cap) design,” said Damon about the Astros insignia. “I’m sure people thought I was rooting for the Astros.”

Red Sox equipment manager Joe Cochran said “slip-ups like that occasionally happen.”

On the heels of their dramatic win in the last game of the regular season to seal the National League Wild Card Playoff berth, the Stros announced today that the club had signed future Hall of Famer and lifelong Stro Craig Biggio to a one year, $4 million contract covering the 2006 season. Bidg will play that season as a spry 40 year old.
Although the purely baseball-related analysis of whether to bring Bidg back is a closer question than the casual fan might think, it’s hard to look at what the Stros accomplished this season and not think back to the one game that was truly the turning point — that September 7 game in Philly when a ninth-inning, two-out, three-run home run by Bidg completed an Astros sweep of the Phillies. That Billy Wagner fastball that Bidg parked in the leftfield seats turned out to be the difference between the Stros going to the playoffs and the Phils going home.
But as good a baseball player as Bidg has been to the Stros, he has turned out to be something more for the club and the city. Bidg is a genuinely nice man who has embraced Houston as his family’s home as much as Houston has embraced him as the face of its baseball team. Craig Biggio is a dying breed, the professional athlete who plays his entire Hall of Fame career in the city that he adopts as his home. As a result, Stros owner Drayton McLane is clearly making the right decision in accomodating this aging star in playing out his string in Houston. As with Roger Clemens, it is highly unlikely that any of us will ever see the likes of Craig Biggio on a baseball field again in our lives.
Bidg’s recent seasons and career statistics are here.

Well, as predicted, the Stros (89-73) didn’t get to celebrate winning the National League Wild Card Playoff berth until the last out of their weekend series with the Cubs (79-83) was recorded in the scorebook.
The Stros clinched on Sunday by pulling out a heart-stopping 6-4 victory over the Cubs after setting up that victory with a similarly tight 3-1 win over the Cubs on Saturday. Preceding those nerve-wracking victories were two even closer games that the Stros lost to the Cubs, 3-2 on Thursday and then 4-3 on Friday in which Stros closer Brad Lidge uncharacteristically blew a two-run lead in the ninth. Lidge came back to save both wins over the weekend.
So, the Stros make the playoffs for the sixth time in the past nine seasons as they close out the remarkably successful Biggio-Bagwell era. I was one of the few to predict that this light-hitting club could contend for yet another playoff berth, although even I wavered during the early part of the season and as recently as a month ago. But after a horrible 15-30 record in their first 45 games, the Stros were a remarkable 74-43 for the remainder of the season to lock up the playoff berth with only three less wins that last season’s club that came within a game of the World Series.
The Stros have a couple of days of rest before taking on their perennial playoff opponent, the Braves (90-72) in Atlanta on Wednesday. They will follow that game with another on Thursday in Atlanta and then games in Houston on Saturday and, if necessary on Sunday, and then a fifth game, if necessary, in Atlanta next Monday. I will post a thorough analysis of the Stros versus Braves series on Tuesday.

After a 6-3 road trip that included a two–game sweep of the Cardinals, the Stros (87-71) come home for four games with the Cubs (77-81) needing any combination of wins or Phillies (85-74) losses equaling two to achieve the club’s sixth playoff berth in the past nine seasons (the Phillies finish the season with three games in Washington against the 81-78 Nationals). Inasmuch as the Stros have gone a positively unbelievable 72-41 after a miserable 15-30 start to the season, one has to feel good about the Stros’ chances of clinching the playoff berth at this point. However, given this club’s chronic lack of hitting, it is reasonable to hold off celebrating until the final out of the clinching game is officially in the scorebook.

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As the Stros continue their improbable push to a second straight Wild Card playoff berth, two of the team members who are most popular among the Stros’ players — shortstop Adam Everett and utility player Eric Bruntlett — are the subjects of the seventh segment in our series on the Stros’ key players. Previous posts are here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Everett came over to Houston from the Red Sox organization in the 1999 Carl Everett trade, but he lost out to Stros farmhand Julio Lugo in the minor league competition to replace the eminently forgettable Tim Bogar as the Stros’ shortstop after the disappointing 2000 season. However, Lugo had a highly-publicized spat with his wife in 2003 and was promptly exiled to Tampa Bay, so Everett was handed the job as a 26 year old rookie.

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