 |
 |
| Adam Wainwright | Wandy Rodriguez |
| 0 - 0, 0.00 | 0 - 0, 0.0 |
It's Jeff Bagwell Appreciation Night but the story is our lefthanded starter. Wandy Rodriguez makes his 47th career start at five minutes past seven this eve, and he looks to even his career record at 20 - 20.
If he does so, even the most cynical Astro follower will go to bed tonight feeling just a little better about the club's chances in 2007. But if Rodriguez fails, and especially if he looks poorly in doing so, even your most optimistic fan is going to feel a little down in the dumps.
The last time Houston started 0 - 4 was 1990, when the Astros fielded a team that must have seemed pretty good as they left spring training, but soon became exposed as an aging team whose free agent acquisitions were laughably inadequate. The model was so broke in 1990, that they scrapped the whole thing for 1991 and started over; I'd hate to see any comparisons whatsoever made between this year's team and that tragically misconceived one.
So . . . the only thing standing between us and a long, hard, uncomfortable look in the mirror is Wandy.
I know I've predicted that Wandy will be acceptable anchoring the fourth spot in the rotation this year, but as I stare at this game tonight, I find myself distinctly uncomfortable. It's one thing to believe in something in concept, quite another to believe it in your gut. Fact is, I'm afraid that Wandy will take the first step tonight in making me look foolish for ever having so publicly supported him.
Well, there's always his knack for run support. Wandy Power, we've always called it, and I'll take some of that tonight, if that's what it takes.
Something, anything to get us off the schneid. That we'd be continuing the Cards own miseries would be simply gravy.
Go Astros!