Jason Castro smacks first career home run as Astros take series against Giants

A series win is exciting in and of itself, but today's was just a little more so. After scoring three runs in the first inning against Giants starter Matt Cain, Jason Castro wasn't satisfied. In leading off the second inning, Castro knocked a home run to start yet another three run inning for a team that has struggled to score with any sort of consistency this season. These past few games are obviously nothing to get too excited about, but the fact that Castro and Chris Johnson have both contributed immediately is something the Astros can hang their collective hats on as they head into Arlington, seeking a little revenge for the beat down the Rangers gave the Astros last weekend.

Wandy Rodriguez pitched six innings for the win, and a bevy of relievers aided in that process, with Matt Lindstrom closing out the game for his 17th save of the season. On the injury front, Geoff Blum once again filled in for Tommy Manzella, something we can expect to see for the next six weeks or so. Hopefully Oswaldo Navarro can get a start here or there as well, because Geoff Blum's ability to play short stop on a consistent basis has never really been tested at any point in his career, and certainly not recently.

Speaking of injuries, with Felipe Paulino heading to the DL, another Round Rockian, Josh Banks, will take his spot in the rotation for the immediate future beginning on Saturday. If it's not one thing, it's another with this team, I suppose. Winning baseball games is nice to see though, something that for the past couple weeks seemed an unreachable dream. I'll admit that before Tuesday, I had probably seen maybe 10 Jason Castro ABs over the course of his minor league career. In this three game series, he's displayed a lot of the skills that the Astros have touted since he was drafted in 2008. Peaks and valleys are a part of a young player's growth, but hopefully a player of his pedigree can have more of the former than the latter.