The Astros finished the first series of the season against the Cubs with a 1-2 record. Opening Day featured Roy Oswalt against Carlos Zambrano. It seems that every time Big Z pitches against the Astros he is flawless and almost gets a no-hitter or a no-hitter if an Astros home game is in Milwaukee. Once again, he pitched great against the Astros and a rally fell short as the Cubs won 4-2. The second game of the series put “magic” Wandy Rodriguez against Ryan Dempster. Wandy had a great game allowing one run through 6 innings. The offense was quiet again, as Dempster didn’t allow a hit til the fourth inning. Because of Wandy’s good outing, the offense was able to come back and send the game to extras where Jeff Keppinger introduced himself to Houston by hitting a walkoff single in the bottom of the 10th inning with the bases loaded to win the game for the Astros 3-2. The series finale was the opposite of the first two games as the single. Brian Moehler struggled and couldn’t get out of the 2nd inning. The Good Guys tried to rally with homeruns by Lance Berkman, Jeff Keppinger, Ivan Rodriguez, and Hunter Pence. The rally fell short as the Astros lost the finale 11-6.

One thing that I liked from the first series was the patience of the Astros. In the first 2 games, the Astros walked ten times and those games were close; however, in the finale, the Astros didn’t receive one walk and were unable to come back because of it. Another surprise is Pence behind the plate. He has hit .400 with 2 homers and only 2 Ks. He is finally laying off that slider down and away.

Some areas the Astros need to improve on is their bullpen. I thought the bullpen would be the strength of the team with Valverde, Geary, and Hawkins coming off good seasons; however, the bullpen has already allowed 6 runs. Hopefully Roy can get out of his slump from the World Baseball Classic soon. After the homeruns were allowed, he settled down but he still wasn’t the Roy O we all know.

Ok, now to the series preview against the St. Louis Cardinals. They split their series with the Pirates to start their season with a 2-2 record. They averaged 4.5 runs/game in the series, so we will have to bring our bats to St. Louis in order to win the series. Astros killer, Albert Pujols, is starting hot, hitting .500 to start the season. The Cardinals weakness is the closing position. They thought Jason Motte would be the guy, but they are unsure after he allowed 4 runs on 4 hits in his first opportunity. The rest of the bullpen has only allowed 2 runs so far this year.

Game 1: Mike Hampton vs. Joel Piniero
The last time Mike Hampton started for the Astros, he finished the season with a 22-4 record. As much as I hope he has this much success, all the Astros are hoping for is consistency and to stay healthy. Mike is not a strikeout pitcher, so his accuracy will have to be perfect in order to keep the hardhitting and patient Cardinals. Joel Piniero is the Cardinals pitcher. He is 1-3 with a 3.04 ERA career against the Astros. We have the opportunity to put up some runs. Piniero hasn’t allowed less than 2 runs in a game since July of 2008.

Game 2: Roy Oswalt vs. Adam Wainwright
Roy Oswalt will try to bounce back after giving up 2 homers in his first start. If Roy can control his aggressiveness and not give Pujols and the other hard hitters, I believe we have a very good shot of winning this game. Adam Wainwright had positives and negatives in his first start against he Pirates. He had 7 strikeouts but also 5 walks. The Astros can afford to be patient at the plate like their first 2 games in order to get more runs to keep up with the Cards.

Game 3: Wandy Rodriguez vs. Kyle Lohse
The biggest question of this matchup: can Wandy pitch on the road like he did at home? The last 2 season, Wandy has a 5.58 era on the road. Hopefully after his experience, he has learned how to control his emotions on the road and will able to pitch better on the road. Kyle Lohse had a good first start of the season. He allowed 3 runs over 7 innings, but it took him 108 pitches to get through 7 innings. He could be tired from the last start and if we get into deep counts, we could get him out of the game early.