Sometimes it's hard to remember they're now the Tampa Bay Rays and not the Devil Rays now. Always wondered why they weren't simply just called the Sting Rays to begin with. Oh well, I digress...
...You know it's been a woeful season for the Houston Astros when, with Sunday's 3-2 win over the Rays (and taking the three-game series 2-1) Houston is now 35-41 on the season while the Rays dropped to 44-31. Imagine that. The Rays, a team in the past that has served as a glorified Triple-A minor league team, is now 13 games above .500.
Even with these two wins in the last three games, we have to wonder if Houston's only bright spot this year will be Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada both possibly going to the All-Star game as starters. (The last time an Astro has been a starter at the All-Star game was at the 2004 game at Minute Maid Park, when Roger Clemens was the starting pitcher and Jeff Kent started at second base).
Yesterday, despite a slow start, the Astros were able to get a solo 5th inning home run by Hunter Pence and a two-run sixth-inning homer by Carlos Lee to beat the Rays 3-2. Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir, with the loss dropped to 6-3 on the season with a 2.03 ERA. Wow, Houston beat a pitcher, and a good one at that. Kazmir gave up four hits and three earned runs in the game to go with two walks and seven strikeouts. Until the fifth inning, he had allowed no runs.
Brandon Backe picked up the win for the Astros, lasting 6.2 innings, giving up six hits, two earned runs, four walks and five strikeouts. His ERA is now 4.82 on the season.
As we approach the All-Star break in a few weeks, one has to wonder if Houston can shift things into high gear, get the pitching and hitting working together and start the climb toward the top of the NL Central ladder. We'll see.
In other news...
...Shawn Chacon is said to be less than thrilled about being demoted to the bullpen. In fact, when asked his response, Chacon gave one that was unprintable. You have to feel for Chacon. After all, this is the same Astros pitcher who began the season with nine straight no-decisions (a Major League record and a sign of atrocious run support--especially when you consider he didn't allow more than three earned runs in any of his first five starts). However, manager Cecil Cooper noted that Chacon has been inconsistent this season: a 2-0 4.75 ERA May has been followed by an 0-3 9.35 ERA June effort.
Runelvys Hernandez will take over in the starting rotation for Chacon...
...As part of a retro look, the Astros and Rays on Saturday wore throwback uniforms. As part of Tropicana Field's "Turn Back the Clock" Night, the Rays wore the burgundy and yellow uniforms of the St. Petersburg Pelicans (of the brief Senior Professional Baseball Association of the late eighties and early nineties), and the Astros wore their infamous rainbow jerseys back when they had decent team colors--blue and orange.
(Sorry, but I hate the current railroad, black, brick red and sand unis and will hound them until the Astros return to the space exploration look and either their original colors of blue and orange or something like blue, red and silver to reflect NASA's logo colors).
The 'Stros wore the rainbow jerseys from 1975-1986, and there's no truth in the rumors that astronauts could see the bright rainbow colors of the uniform from outer space (besides, Houston played in the Astrodome at the time).
In turn, the Astros also wore a retro uniform from the 1980s, breaking out the old rainbow jerseys that they wore from 1975-86. First base coach Jose Cruz has quite a familiarity with those uniforms, considering that was all he wore during his Astros playing career which spanned from 1975-87.
Keywords: Astros, Brandon Backe, Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence, Rays, Shawn Chacon, Wandy Rodriguez
