Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 05, 2008
Games of the Day

The Astros won seven of their last eight games and pitched consecutive shutouts as they play game two against the Chicago Cubs. With visions of their 2004 and 2005 second half comebacks dancing in their heads, they now sit seven games out of the wild card with five teams ahead of them. Wandy Rodgriguez takes the mound this afternoon against Rich Harden. For the second year in a row, Wandy's taken his ERA down about a run. Last season he upped his strikeouts. This season, he lowered his walks. Harden has been almost unhittable since joining the Cubs. He faced 95 batters, struck out 39 and allowed just 14 hits.

The Fish and the Phillies open up a three game series, giving the Marlins a chance to move into first place in the NL East. A sweep puts them up 1/2 game. Josh Johnson takes on Jamie Moyer. Johnson's walk and strikeout numbers are good in his first four starts, but he has allowed three home runs in 23 2/3 innings. Moyer is perfect in his career against the Marlins, going 10-0 in ten starts with a 3.03 ERA.

The Tigers sit 6 1/2 games out of first place as they open a three-game series with the White Sox. Game one seems to favor Chicago as Nate Robertson opposes Gavin Floyd. Robertson has a well deserved 6.06 ERA as he's allowed a .501 slugging percentage this season. Batters hit for power off Floyd as well, but his batting average allowed is much lower, so it doesn't have the same impact.

The Dodgers and the Cardinals are both battling for playoffs spots with Chad Billingsley facing Chris Carpenter in St. Louis. Chad is the kind of pitcher who should benefit from the increased offense expected from the trade of Manny Ramirez. Despite a 3.05 ERA, his record is just 11-9. Carpenter was somewhat lucky to allow just one run in his first start since recovering from surgery. Seven of nineteen batters reached base against the former Cardinals ace.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 12:34 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

People here in Houston love to toss off 2004 and 2005, they just forget that Biggio, Bagwell, Clemens, Pettitte, Lidge, Kent, Beltran, Qualls, Wheeler, Ensberg, and Burker are gone and that Roy Oswalt is pitching nowhere like he was then.

Posted by: John Royal at August 5, 2008 01:55 PM

The optimistic view is that the best run diff in front of the Astros for the wild card is +37, held by the Mets. They're not competing against the '27 Yankees for that postseason slot.

The pessimistic view is that the Astros' run diff is bad and getting worse today. Losing 6-1 in the fourth.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 5, 2008 03:21 PM

Just for the sheer joy, I checked the '27 Yankees' run diff on baseball-reference.com. They were pretty good at +376.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 5, 2008 03:26 PM

Hm, this year's Cubs aren't the '27 Yankees, either. The Astros have cut the lead to 6-3 in the fifth.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 5, 2008 03:44 PM

Now it's 6-5. Visions are dancing more?

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 5, 2008 03:55 PM
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