The Cubs lost Thursday afternoon again (that’s five out of the last six, folks) and the Giants won their late game, so the Stros enter the final weekend of the regular season tied with the Giants for the Wild Card playoff lead and the Cubs are a game behind the Stros and the Giants.
The Stros’ Pete Munro starts the biggest game of his career in the Friday night game against the Rockies, while Roy O starts the Saturday night game and goes for his 20th win. Developments over those two games will dictate who starts the Sunday afternoon finale as the Rocket looms in the shadows to start on three days rest, if necessary.
The Rockies come in finishing up another woeful season (68-91) and are 4-6 in their last ten games. But they will be “loose as a goose in a bucket of juice,” so the Stros likely will not have it easy. The best approach for the Stros is to take early leads in each game so that the Rockie players become distracted with dinner plans rather than baseball. The Rockies have one great hitter (Todd Helton, who is comparable to Berkman), one decent hitter (Jeremy Burnitz, who has similar stats to Bags), and then a bunch of average and below average hitters, including ex-Stro, Vinnie Castilla, who Milo will describe as having a great season despite an Ensberg-like -10 RCAA (RCAA explained here).
The Giants play three with the Dodgers in L.A. and the Cubs play the Braves at Wrigley over the weekend, so neither of those clubs will have it easy, either. It’s going to be a wild weekend, so hold on tight.