The Stros once promising season sank to the bottom on Thursday night as the Cubs completed a four game sweep of the Stros at the Juice Box, 5-4.
The Stros are now 33-32 and in fifth place in the NL Central. Since peaking at a season-high 10 games over .500 at 21-11 and leading the NL Central by three games on May 11, the fifth-place Astros have gone 12-21 and are now four and a half games behind the Cards. They have lost four in a row, six of their last seven, and 17 of their last 26 games.
For the first part of this hideous past month, the Stros hitting was decent and the pitching generally — with the exception of Clemens — was below average. The pitching has turned around over the past two weeks, but the hitting has gone south as the Stros scored a total of eight runs in the four games with the Cubs.
Roy O battled gamely tonight, giving up 4 runs on 11 hits through seven tough innings. However, journeyman Glendon Rusch handcuffed the Stros, and a mini-uprising in the ninth spiced by Jason Lane‘s first homer of the season petered out.
The Angels come to town tomorrow for a weekend series at the Juice Box as the Stros search for that elusive winning formula. Pete Munro will likely start for the Stros, so expect some hard-hitting in this one, at least from the Angels.
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
Jimy and Gerry should be feeling some heat from Drayton after that embarassing series against a division rival. Isn’t that twice now this year that the Astros have been swept at home by a division foe? The offense has been terrible for the last few weeks, and Biggio’s lack of speed in the outfield really showed up in the Cubs series.
I’ve defended Jimy in this space before, but a managerial change may be necessary if they don’t turn it around soon. Real soon. Heck, it worked for Florida last year, and they had arguably less talent last year than the Astros do right now.
As you’ll note from my posts on the Stros, I am not a big Jimy fan. His failure to evaluate players using statistical analysis leads him to illogical allegiances with poor players such as Ausmus and Vizcaino, while potentially good hitters such as Ensberg, Lane, and Hidalgo have not felt comfortable playing for him. Having said that, Jimy is not the main problem with the Stros right now. The main problem is that they have only one top flight hitters, several young hitters who are still proving themselves, and then several older hitters in various states of decline. I expect the trend over the past 30 games to continue through the rest of the season.