Matchup/Game Thread Game # 138 at Phillies

Roger Clemens	Cole Hamels
6 - 4, 2.29	7 - 7, 4.50

If we're seeing Lane and Burke, then this Hamels fellow must be a lefty . . .but look at Morgan, alone there with his head down at the end of the bench, while the lefty Huff starts. Another indignity for Moberg in a season full of them.

And I guess Phil wants Bruntlett to revisit the scene of his September 2005 triumphs. I'll certainly take two stolen bases in clutch time out of Eric B today. Although if all he does is score the game-tying run on somebody else's dramatic ninth-inning homer, that'd be OK, too.

Hamels allows righties to hit .257 off him, as the Astros come in fifth in the league against southpaws with a .271 batting average.

But the split I like is that Hamels is 1 - 3 with an 8.53 in day games. Maybe he's like the King from the "Closet Chronicles" and the sunlight hurts his eyes.

Or something.

Clemens is 1 - 0 with a 1.35 in the afternoon, advantage 'Stros.

Both starters to day had excellent Augusts; Roger was 4 - 0 with a 2.54, and Hamels was 4 - 2 and a 2.43 ERA.

Not much else to say, Clemens goes for his 348th win today, and Rocket's so old in relation to the rookie Hamels that he sailed to America with Hamels' 21-times-removed grandfather aboard the Mayflower, yadda yadda yadda.

Enjoy your Labor Day, Go Astros.