Your Houston Astros play their final game of the "Grapefruit League" season today at 12:05PM CST, sending Brandon Backe to the hill against Dustin McGowan of the Blue Birds.  After today the Astros head home to play 2 exhibition games against the Detroit Tigers at Minute Maid Park before they head off to San Diego and open the season against the Padres on Monday.

I know I'm sounding like a broken record here, but boy can the Astros score some runs.  We scored 6 more runs yesterday against the Indians, but unfortunately, the Indians scored more.  Roy had his 2nd straight outing in which he gave up 4 runs or more, but today, only 1 was earned as his defense(and that of his team) let him down causing 4 of his 5 runs scored against to be considered unearned.  Roy only made it through 3 2/3 innings today before he gave the ball to Wright, who finished up the 4th and completed the 5th innings without giving up a run. 

Cruz and Pence had good days with Cruz going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI's and Pence 3 for 3; but failing to score or drive anyone in.  Cooper will be sending his 25 man roster to the comish before Mondays game against the Padres and I can't imagine it not including Cruz on it.  The roster currently sits at 30 with Cooper sending Cassel to Round Rock and Hernandez to minor league camp on Wednesday. 

With Cassel being gone, the 5th starter spot is down to either Woody Williams or Chris Sampson, with neither really doing a whole lot to prove that they should have the job(Cassel was probably the best of the 3), but Cooper is going with one of them and should have a decision sometime before Monday's game.

One thing that can be pretty evident in after going through most of spring training for the Astros is that we can score some runs... but unfortunately... we give up a bunch as well. 

The Astros started off good today scoring 7 runs in the first two innings, but then the pitching (starting with Chacon) slowly gave it away.  Chacon went 5 innings today, but gave up 6 runs.  Not really what we were looking for from who looks to be our 4th starter.  Wright (who had been terrific in his last few outings), earned a blown save by giving up 2 runs in the 9th inning to send the game into extra innings. 

Our leadoff man, Michael Bourn went 0-6 today with a strike out lowering his spring average to .258.  Jose Cruz continued his good spring with a 2-5 day and his 3rd home run of the season. 

Next up, the Astros go up against the Tigers at 5:05PM CST tomorrow, sending Chris Sampson to the hill against Justin Verlander.  This looks like Sampson's last chance to earn that 5th starters spot. 

Astros spring record is 12-14-1