Your Houston Astros send Chris Sampson to the hill against the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander today at 5:05PM CST.  The Astros are coming off a 10-10 tie yesterday with the Marlins in which they blasted 2 home runs and had 16 hits.  Unfortunately the pitching wasn't strong enough(seems to be a trend) to hold the 7-3 lead that was given after 2 innings. 

The Tigers look to be one of the strongest teams in the majors and are being predicted by many to win the World Series.  The Astros are currently 1-1 against the Tigers and face them two more times after today. 

The Astros have just 5 more games (including todays game) before real baseball starts.  Opening day for the Astros will be on the road against the Padres on March 31 at 9:05PM CST.

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