Very impressive night for Roy Oswalt tonight; by far his best outing of the year.  What a dominant performance put forth by Roy-O.  7 innings of 5 hit, 1 run ball is pretty impressive, but then add in the 10 k's and 0 walks and it really makes you feel like he may be turning a corner.  Roy has mentioned time after time that he pitches to contact in an attempt to get deeper into games and keep his pitch count down.  Well, tonight he threw 99 pitches and made it through 7 innings and only gave up 1 run.  Doesn't seem like the 10 strike outs really hurt his pitch count too much.  100 pitches over 7 innings isn't too bad and puts the Astros just where they want to be... especially when you hold the other team to just 1 run. 

Unfortunately I didn't get to watch the game tonight.  Work kept me away from most of the game and I caught the last few innings on the radio on my way home, so I missed getting to actually watch Roy be dominant... but hopefully I'll get to see some more of that in his next game.

Now this is what the 2008 Houston Astros offense should be doing.  Every Astros starter except for catcher Brad Ausmus recorded at least one hit tonight, with shortstop Miguel Tejada doing the most damage with his 4-5, 3 RBI's and 3 runs scored including a double and a home run.  Tejada raised his average on the season to .342 with his best offensive performance of the year.  Lance Berkman added a home run of his own to help the Astros beat the Padres 10-3 in the 1st game of this 2 game mini series. 

Padres starter Justin Germano entered today's game with a top 5 ERA of 1.35; he left the game with a middle of the pack 5.01 ERA.

Roy Oswalt is starting to return to his old ways after losing his 1st 3 starts of the season.  Roy has been good in his last 2 starts by giving up just 4 runs over 14 innings.  Roy's ERA is still at 6.00, but that is much better than the 9.00 he was sporting 2 starts ago.  I'm not going to say that he's 100% back to normal, but his breaking ball is coming around and he's hitting his spots most of the time with his fast ball.  Roy struck out 6 batters tonight and only walked 2.  On the down side, 2 of Roy's earned runs against tonight were home runs; but fortunately, both solo shots.

Other Notables

• Bullpen : Byrdak, Villarreal combined for 2 scoreless innings
• Pence : 2 for 4 with an RBI - avg up to .229
• Bourn : 1-3 with 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored
• Matsui - 2-5 with 2 runs scored

Finally we get at least a small glimpse of the Roy Oswalt that we have missed so dearly.  I'm not going to say that Roy-O was the best that we've ever seen him... but he looked much closer tonight to the Roy-O of old than he has the past 3 games this season.  Roy had a pretty good curve ball tonight.  I specifically remember the curve ball he threw to Burrell in the 3rd inning that started out about mid chest and dropped almost to the dirt; Burrell swung and missed and then just stared out into nowhere with a grin on his face, knowing that he was out-classed with that one.  The fastball on Roy was running anywhere from 91-95 (or so said the my20 radar) and he had pretty good location, striking out 4 batters. 

Oswalt finished the night by going 7 innings with just 5 hits, 1 ER and lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 6.65. 

On the other side of the ball, the Astros were a little lacking.  The Phillies actually out hit the Astros 6-4 but were unable to cross the plate after the 1st inning.  Michael Bourn had a great game tonight.  Starting off in the 1st inning, he forced a bad throw by Utley at 2nd and was safe at 1st on what was ruled a hit.  Then (even though he was showing signs of pain... not sure what that was about) stole 2nd and scored on line drive off the left field wall by Carlos Lee.  In the 5th inning, with 2 outs and no runners on, Bourn hit a blast down the right field line that hit the foul poll to give the Astros the lead and eventually the win.  I'll admit, I was pretty shocked that Bourn could hit the ball that well... it was a blast!

I can't go on without mentioning the stellar performance by Wesley Wright and Doug Brocail in relief for Roy...  After Roy left in the 7th inning, Wright came in and struck out the side and then Brocail came in and struck out 2 to earn his 1st save of the season.  I'm really happy that Valverde wasn't available for tonight's game...  I'm not sure if I could have taken him on the hill again after last nights fiasco. 

It only took 4 series' for the Astros to do it, but they finally won their 1st series of the year after beating the NL East leading Florida Marlins, 2 of 3 games at Minute Maid Park. 

This series provided a few 1st for the Astros. 

• 1st series the Astros scored 5+ runs per game
• 1st series that Jose Valverde didn't give up a run in any appearance
• 1st series that an Astros starter recorded a win (Backe and Rodriguez both recorded wins)
• 1st series win

Roy Oswalt started the 1st game of the series and left the game after giving up 8 earned runs and earning his 3rd straight loss of the season.  This has to be the 1st time Roy Oswalt has started off a season 0-3 right?  Wrong...  This is actually the 2nd time in his career to do so.  He did this in 2002, but in a much different fashion.  In 2002 Roy started off the year 0-3 and gave up just 5 runs over his 1st three games.  Roy turned it around fast by winning his next 9 decisions and ending the season with a 19-9 record and a 3.01 ERA. 

The Astros have an off day today and head to Philadelphia to play the Phillies for a 3 game series before coming back home to play the Rockies. 

Kaz Matsui had another setback over the weekend which has been attritbuted to a stiff back caused by lack of use while he was nursing his body after surgery.  Matsui was hoped to have been back for the Phillies series, but missed his last 2 rehab starts because of the bad back.  Matsui is now scheduled to make 3 rehab starts with Roun Rock and then join the Astros on Friday to play in the series against his old team, the Colorado Rockies.

I guess we'll have to jot this one down as a loss to be blamed on the pitching staff.  The Astros offense produced as advertised scoring 7 runs behind 12 hits, but unfortunately, the pitching staff couldn't hold the lead.  Roy Oswalt, the Astros bone fide Ace of staff had another rough outing going 6.2 innings and giving up 5 earned runs.  The most surprising thing for me?  No strike outs?  Roy is a contact pitcher, but I still expect him to chalk up 3 or 4 strike outs a game.  Him having a zero in the K column is bothersome.  Roy said he felt fine, but "just didn't have it."  Well, Roy, that's 2 straight outings where you "just didn't have it"... any more and you'll have me pretty worried.  Another thing that Roy doesn't seem worried about is the "temporary twinge" in his right bicep that occurred during the 6th inning.  It may have been temporary, but any type of pain in my star pitchers arm seriously worries me... call me over dramatic if you will; but it bothers me.

***News Flash***  Wigginton was charged for his 1st error this season... he's no longer a gold glover... what a shame...

Offense wise, the Astros were strong.  Carlos Lee(who has been having a pretty terrible season so far), went 3-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI to go with a 2 run dinger in the 4th.  Very happy to see this out of El Caballo.  Erstad also had a strong game after coming in relief of Lance Berkman(who left the game early due to neck spasms; listed day to day) by going 2 for 2 with 2 runs scored and an RBI.  Having someone who can do this off the bench could be a very good commodity in the long run.  Other Astros with multiple hits were Ty Wigginton who went 2-3 and Michael Bourn who went 2-5.  Pence(1) and Bourn(4) also swiped bases during the game.  If Bourn keeps this up, I may nickname him "Swiper" in which the only defense would be to say "Swiper, no swiping; Swiper no swiping."(for those of you without kids, it's a reference to Dora the explorer... sorry).  Bourn is now on pace for 108 steals this season... I know... meaningless, but still fun.

The battle between Cy Young hopefuls was won by the reigning NL Cy Young winner in Jake Peavy.  Peavy had basically a perfect night going 7 full innings, allowing just 3 hits and no runs while striking out 4.  That's just part of the story, as Peavy also went 1-1 at the plate, with 2 RBI's and drew a walk to be the hands down player of the game. 

Oswalt on the other hand, was a different story.  Roy battled all night long, but through his own admission, didn't have a feel for any of his breaking stuff and used mostly fastballs.  Roy, known for using few pitches to get through innings ended his 5 1/3 innings with 114 pitches. 

"To keep the pitch count down, you have to have breaking pitches to get guys out front," Oswalt said. "That's one of the reasons my pitch count got up so high. I was throwing fastball after fastball after fastball. I was trying to mix in the four-seamer and two-seamer. It was 20-pitch inning after 20-pitch inning.

"I kept looking up, trying to have a quick inning ... if you don't have a breaking pitch where you get guys on first pitch, second pitch, out front where they have to respect the fastball, they can sit on the fastball all night."

Roy just had an off night...  his fastball was pretty good, causing foul ball after foul ball from Padres hitters, but they basically knew what was coming on every pitch.  Any big league hitter, sitting dead red on fastball, is more than likely going to be able to hit even the best pitcher.  Roy ended the night with 5 1/3 innings pitched, 11 hits, 3 ER's and 6 strike outs to go with 1 walk taking the loss. 

Best Astros Player
I would say the best Astros player was Bourn.  He started off the game with a hit and then stole 2nd and then drew a walk later in the game and stole again.  He also made a damn nice running catch with bases loaded late in the game to save 3 runs from scoring.  Runner up would be Tejada who went 2-4 and made a couple of slick plays in the field.

Best Padres Player
Peavy.. and it's not even close.  For those of you who are fans of FanGraphs, Peavy's combined WPA (on the mound and at the plate) was .515.  The next closest player was Iguchi for the Padres at .77.  Iguchi had a nice night at the plate going 3-5 with a run scored and 2 doubles.