So with the return of the position-by-position previews and Game Hero last night, I didn't want to wait. As I did last year, I will try to put these Win Expectancy charts together as time permits.
Last night's victory takes the Astros to a 23 - 22 record all-time on Opening Day, and pushes them to 18 - 15 when opening at home, and as frustrating as it was to watch at times, now that it's safely in the books, we can recognize the low scoring affair as distinctive in a couple different ways.
It was the first 1 -0 Opening Day game in franchise history, and the Astros' first shutout victory on Opening Day as well. The Astros had previously been shut out on the first day of the regular season a whopping four times. So it's good that we started to inflict the Opening Day pain a little bit. . . .
Roy was of course amazing, and not only did he record his 84th career victory, but he notched his second Opening Day win, having already beaten the Rockies leading off the season back in 2003. He is now one of only five pitchers in club history with more than one Opening Day victory:
| Pitcher | Record | Number of Starts |
| Larry Dierker | 3 - 0 | 4 |
| JR Richard | 2 - 2 | 5 |
| Mike Scott | 3 - 1 | 5 |
| Shane Reynolds | 3 - 1 | 5 |
| Roy Oswalt | 2 - 1 | 4 |
Research conducted in my car this morning while I was sitting in traffic indicates that Roy has a 15:5 Opening Day strikeout to walk ratio to go with those 2 victories, and a 3.49 Opening Day ERA.