Astro-killer Ben Sheets mowed down the hometown boys for the second time in less than a week last night, 6-2. About the only positive aspect of the game for the Stros was Craig Biggio‘s 35th lead off home run in the first inning. Roy O tries to get the Stros back on track tonight in the series’ second game.

The Stros completed a 5-1 road trip this afternoon by plastering the Cards 11-1 to sweep the series from the Redbirds. Berkman and Bags each had three run dingers, and Biggio also had three RBI’s. Despite walking seven and throwing only 60 of his 121 pitches for strikes, Wade Miller somehow shut out the Cards over 7 innings to notch the win.
The Stros are now 6-3, and are returning to Minute Maid Park for a four game set with the Brew Crew over the weekend, and a three game series with the Cardinals beginning next Tuesday. Tim Redding will be on the hill for the ‘Stros in the homestand opener Thursday night.

The Rocket fired 62/3rds innings of two hit ball as the Astros’ beat the Cardinals 5-3 for their second straight win in St. Louis. Berkman, Everett and red-hot Hidalgo each hit solo shots, and Jeff Kent‘s two run double in the seventh gave the Stros a comfortable three run lead. Things got a bit testy in the bottom of the ninth when Dotel gave up back to back dingers to Edmonds and Rolen, but he finally settled down and put down the uprising.
Wade Miller pitches as the Stros go for the sweep on Wednesday afternoon before returning home for a four game weekend series with Milwaukee.
In other Astros news, Jared Fernandez, he of the remarkable 54 earned run average, was sent down to AAA New Orleans and replaced on the roster with Mike Gallo, a 26 year old lefty reliever in his second MLB season who performed reasonably well for the Stros during the second half of last season and who had pitched well in his first few appearances this season at New Orleans.

A big part of baseball’s attractiveness is its utter unpredictability. By any measure, Monday’s game between the Astros and the Cardinals should have been a cake walk for the Redbirds. Due to Andy Pettitte going on the disabled list, the ‘Stros started Jared Fernandez, a journeyman knuckleball pitcher. The Cards were starting Houston native and former University of Houston pitcher, Woody Williams, who has owned the ‘Stros over the past several seasons.
So, what happens? The Stros score four runs in the top of the 1st off of Williams, and then the Cards score four runs off of Fernandez in 1/3rd of an inning in the bottom of the first. The game then settles down until the 8th, when the Stros put it away behind Craig Biggio’s three run double, his third of the game, to win 10-5. Richard Hidalgo was the other big run producer for the Stros, hitting a three run dinger in the 1st and a sac fly in the 8th.
Grizzled observers of the Stros are starting to wonder just how bad those pictures are that Fernandez apparently possesses of manager Jimy Williams and Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker. Williams continues to trot Fernandez into games despite the fact that, after last night’s game, he has an earned run average of 54!
Roger Clemens goes for the Stros in the second game of the series in St. Louis this evening.

Roy O gave the ‘Stros six strong innings and Lance Berkman hit his third career grand salami today as the Stros beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 to take two of three in the series. Berkman’s grand slam was unusual for the switchhitter because he hit it from the right side, which is his less productive side of the plate (his slugging percentage last season was 100 points less from the right side than it was from the left side).
The Stros now move on to St. Louis for a three game series before returning to Houston for a four game series with the Brew Crew beginning on Thursday.

Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets overpowered the Astros today as the Brewers won easily, 6-1. Sheets gave up four singles in six innings, walked none, and struck out 10. Tim Redding pitched decently for the Stros, but he gave up a three run jack to Wes Helms in the fifth, and that was more than enough for the Brew Crew the way Sheets was mowing down the Stros hitters. The Stros attempt to salvage the series Sunday afternoon behind Roy O.
In worse news, lefthander Andy Pettitte was sent back to Houston and placed on the 15 day disabled list today because of a strained left elbow. An MRI was performed at The Methodist Hospital in Houston on Thursday and revealed inflammation in Pettitte’s left elbow and a strain in his flexor tendon. Righthanded reliever Brandon Backe was called up from Class AAA New Orleans.

The Astros hammered the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon, 13-7, behind the pitching of Wade Miller and the hitting of Jeff Bagwell and Richard Hidalgo. Miller went 6 innings and gave up 2 runs on four hits, while Bags went nuclear, hitting two home runs (one of which was his sixth career grand slam), scored 3 runs, and collecting 12 total bases and 5 RBI. Hidalgo’s 4 RBI performance was almost an afterthought. The ‘Stros raked Brewer pitching for 14 hits, 6 of which were for extra bases.
About the only downside of today’s game was the continued struggles of relief pitchers Jared Fernandez and Brandon Duckworth, who combined to give up 5 runs in an inning and a third during mop up duty. Fernandez is a knuckleballer who had his moments last season for the Astros, but he has been consistently bad this season throughout the spring and the first few games. Duckworth came over to the ‘Stros in the offseason in the Billy Wagner trade, and he has been mediocre in his initial appearances. With the pitching depth that the Astros have at their AAA team in New Orleans, both of these players would be well-advised to step it up or they could find themselves on a plane to the Crescent City quickly.
The ‘Stros play the Brew Crew in afternoon games the next two days before moving on to St. Louis for a three game series beginning on Monday.

This ESPN.com article analyzes the current Major League Baseball salary information, concluding that the median salary for ballplayers (i.e., the salary at which exactly half the players are above that salary and half the players are below that salary) is $800,000, down from a high of $975,000 in 2001. That figure is really more important than the average salary ($2.49 million), which is driven up by a relatively small number of extraordinarily high salaries. ARod is the highest paid player ($21.7 million) for the fourth year in a row, and behind him on the highest-paid list were Boston’s Manny Ramirez ($20.4 million), Toronto’s Carlos Delgado ($19.7 million), the Yankees’ Derek Jeter ($18.6 million) and San Francisco’s Barry Bonds ($18 million).

41 year old Roger Clemens threw 7 one hit innings in his first start as a Houston Astro in leading the ‘Stros to a 10-1 mangling of the San Francisco Giants. Here is the NY Times article on the game and Clemens’ pre-game telephone conference with Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner.
Clemens — who is the best pitcher of his generation and one of the best of all-time — turned in a dominating performance as he struck out nine and even chipped in with a hit (I think it was like the fifth hit of his career; he’s been an American League pitcher for a long time). Bags, Hidalgo, and Kent hammered homers, and Biggio doubled twice and scored twice. The 10 runs felt good after the Stros struggled to score in the first two games of the series.
The Stros now hit the road for a week as they play in Milwaukee and St. Louis. They return to Minute Maid on Friday, April 16th against the Brew Crew.

The ‘Stros dropped the second game of the opening series of the season to the Giants on Tuesday night, 7-5. Frankly, the warning signs for this team are already glaring after only two games.
Andy Pettitte was cruising through 3 and 2/3rd’s innings when he walked Marquis Grissom (not a bad move; Grissom can only hit lefties) to load the bases to get to the light-hitting Neifi Perez. This is how Baseball Prospectus 2004 describes Perez:

Is Neifi Perez the worst hitter of all-time? We won’t go into the detailed arguments here, but he has a case, along with Hal Lanier and a few others. He’s still an excellent fielder, and he might be able to help a team if he’s used mostly as a late inning defensive sub. But regardless of how good a fielder he is, the thought of Neifi Perez breaking camp as the starting San Francisco shortop should be terrifying to Giants fans.

Perez promptly doubled, driving in all three runs. Then, two innings later, he whacks Pettitte again by doubling off of Tal’s Hill in center to drive in another run. So, the story line of this game is that Pettitte made Perez look like A-Rod. At least for one game.
In the meantime, Jimy (“I like veterans”) Williams has four promising young sluggers on this team who are capable of being regular players (Lance Berkman, Richard Hidalgo, Morgan Ensberg, and Jason Lane). The rest are either formerly good hitters in various states of decline (Biggio, Bagwell, and Kent), one below average hitter who has the potential to be average (Adam Everett) and one horrible hitter (Brad Ausmus).
In tonight’s game, Williams played two (Berkman and Hidalgo) of his four promising hitters. This team simply does not hit well enough to score sufficient runs without regular contributions from its best hitters. A good case can be made that Williams inexplicable platooning last season of the emerging slugger Ensberg with the below average veteran Geoff Blum may have cost the Astros the Central Division Pennant (which they lost by one game to the Cubs). If Williams continues that same trend this season by insisting on platooning Ensberg with the newly-acquired Mike Lamb, and failing at least to platoon the promising Lane in centerfield with the fading Biggio, then Astros GM Gerry Hunsiker needs to give Williams a pink slip quickly. Williams just may be that “baseball man” who is a good coach, but is overmatched as a manager.