How many times have you heard this statement? The Silver Boot series is tonight where the Astros face the AL 3rd place Texas Rangers. The Rangers have had a great start to the season, leading the AL West by 2 games over the Angels. In the first Silver Boot series of the year, the Astros were dominated. The Rangers got the sweep with a +9 run differential. That means the Astros have to sweep the Rangers in Arlington scoring at least 10 more runs than the Rangers in order to bring the Silver Boot back to Houston.

The first game will be Wandy Rodriguez vs. Kevin Millwood. 5 potential Astros starters have career batting averages over .300 against Millwood, but this season’s Millwood is not like the past. Millwood has a 6-4 record but holds a 2.72 era. He has thrown more than 100 pitches in all but 2 starts this season. The Astros bats have to be perfect tonight. Hopefully we can keep the bats from the D-backs series where we scored 6 runs and 8 runs in the last 2 games respectively. Wandy found his early season form last start after losing the previous 3 starts. Ian Kinsler is the only Rangers starter with a significant number of at bats to have success against Wandy with a .700 average. Carlos Lee should be back tonight after missing the last few games due to injury.

The second game puts Russ Ortiz against Matt Harrison, who is coming off 2 rehab starts. He gave up 1 run in 4 innings in his last start Thursday. This has the makings of a shootout. Overall, Harrison is 4-4 this season with an era over 5.00. He started the season having control problems and allowing many walks. His walks have gone down since then, but his earned runs have stayed the same. 6 of his 9 starts he has allowed 4 or more runs. Russ Ortiz has struggled in a few starts this season, which put him in the bullpen. His last start however was last week, in which he went into the 6th inning allowing 0 runs. He hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 19.

The last game of the series puts 2 veterans against each other…Roy Oswalt vs. Vicente Padilla. Padilla is 4-1 in his last 5 starts with a 3.82 era. He is not a strikeout pitcher but he gives up a few walks. If the Astros have patience, they could get a few people on base. Oswalt has been showing signs of improvement and returning to his usual self. We need him if we want the Silver Boot.

Even though we have to sweep the series, we have a chance because we have our 2 best pitchers going. The Rangers have also had trouble scoring runs lately. Hopefully we’ll win the first 2 games at least to make the finale an interesting and entertaining end.