Starring Kaz Matsui as Brett Boone, Jeff Kepinger as Matt Williams, Hunter Pence in a touching role as Brady Anderson, Lance Berkman brings out his inner Rafael Palmeiro, and of course Pudge Rodriguez as, well, Pudge Rodriguez in his Ranger days. This is obviously not to say all these guys have decided to start up a juicing regimen. An open roof with the wind blowing out takes Minute Maid back to its Enron days, and with Brian Moehler going up against Ted Lilly, you had to expect that it was going to take a strong offensive showing to win the ball game tonight.
"If we started in the 3rd inning we would've won tonight," said Cecil Cooper in his postgame news conference.
The extent of the Astros scoring tonight came from 5 homeruns. How many runs were produced in the assault? Six. Maybe, I am a hopeless optimist, but for the 3rd game in a row, I think Cecil Cooper has a lot to be happy about even after losing the game 11-6 and the series 2 games to 1. Despite starting off the season with an era just under forty, Brian Moehller wasn't really THAT awful. In scoring five runs over the first inning, the Cubs didn't hit a single ball hard. Tell your starter that he will break 3 bats in the first inning, and he'll take it every time.
"It was one of those nights I couldn't get them to hit it at somebody," said Moehller in post game clubhouse interviews.
Some positives to think about: Michael Bourn with another hit tonight (taking the ball the other way, no less), Russ Ortiz pitching well (solidifying his role), every Astros starter getting a hit, and all but three with RBI's (Bourn, Lee, and Tejada were without, the latter two you have to expect will shake off the rust soon).
Overall, not a terrible opening series for the hometown club. The off day tomorrow lets Cooper have his best two horses (yes, Wandy is one of them) against the Cardinals over the weekend. Winning a couple at Busch could go a long way towards success for this season, but remember it's still early. Right now, it looks as though the early part of the season is especially important because it will get tougher as we get into the summer. I'm not sure that's true, but at this point it doesn't matter. A win in April is just as important as a win in September.
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