This week in Astros ball...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

We began the 10 game road stretch by doing the unthinkable, sweeping the Cards in St. Louis. The Good Guys are currently on a 4-game winning streak. We're not out of the woods yet, but the Astros are showing signs of life.

The Good:

Is anyone pitching as good as Roy Oswalt? Roy knows something is gonna happen this season. Either we make a hard run at the NLCS (yeah right) or he's going somewhere else. Lance Berkman reached base 8 straight times against the Cards. Hunter Pence and Lance Berkman alone hit 5 home runs against STL. Fortunately, the bats are waking up. The bullpen has been dazzling as well. Matt Lindstrom continues his perfect save season, Brandon Lyon has thrown consecutive scoreless frames in his appearances. And don't forget Chris "I wanna talk to" Sampson. The man induces inning saving ground balls. Let's face it, who really wants to pitch to Pujols and Holliday?

The Bad:

Bud Norris can not beat a team that's not from St. Louis. Brett Meyers is gonna pitch his arm off. Any bullpenners not named Matt, Chris or Brandon are still shaky. Roy Oswalt, Felipe Paulino and Wandy Rodriguez (in that order) are leading MLB(!) in lack of run support. Roy O should be 4-1 at least. Michael Bourn is facing a 2 game suspension for a little "bump the ump". We're heading into the NL West buzzsaw before we have to face (gulp) the Kings of the AL East Tampa Bay Rays. We may be screwed.

The Ugly:

Minus the now hot Lance Berkman and Hunter Pence, other than Michael Bourn, our hitting is still pretty attrocious. I know pitching wins games, but our starting 5 need run support. Pedro Feliz, Kaz Matsui,Carlos Lee, Tommy Manzella and that new catcher are all around .200 batting. Keppinger continues to have GIDP problems, but at least he's hitting. Hey, Q is batting .250. Whatever his and Paulino's wife did this offseason, its working. At least for Q.

Next up is, in my humble opinion, the best starting 3 pitchers in baseball, San Fran Giants. At least we only get Matt Cain. I hope. The good news is they're almost as poor as us offensively, and Tim Lincecum has 3 no decisions in his last 3 outings, all 3 of which he left with the lead.

Here's hoping we are the team that can finally solve Barry Zito's horrendous 12-6 curve.

Phil