First off let me start by saying... LORETTA NEEDS TO STAY IN THE LINEUP! Loretta moved his average up to .392 today going 4 for 5 with an RBI and a run scored. He's hot, basically has been for the whole season. One thing I would NEVER do as a manager is put someone who is on a hot streak on the bench(unless of course, they are just too worn out to play and request a day off... in which case I call them a pansy and play them anyways. kidding). Loretta is hot; so play him!
It was an overall good day for the Astros. Obviously the offense was good, scoring 13 runs and only stranding 6 of 19 base runners. Berkman brought his average up to .278 going 2 for 3 on the day; that's a little more like it Lance. He still has some work to do, but this is much better than the ~.190 he was batting a few weeks ago. I will mention that Pence hit a grand slam(his first career home run) which really isn't that big of a deal(no matter what the sports talking heads say). It was a home run, in a blow out game, against a dude named after some tasty chocolate(no idea why I'm making that point... just work with me here). The thing that should really be said is the fact that he went 1 for 5, lowering his batting average to .250(.016 points higher than Chris Burke). I know the season is young, but Pence needs to step up his game.
And on to the pitching. All I really need to say is W0W. Hell of a job by the pitching staff today. Albers goes 7 1/3 innings, giving up 3 hits and no runs just 1 game after going 2 1/3 innings and giving up 3 runs. Nice turn around... that seems to be a trend with some of our young pitchers(Sampson). Albers was by no means over powering today striking out 2, but he did exactly what he is supposed to do. Get outs and win games. After Albers did his thing, the bull pen consisting of Miller and Borkowski put up 2 2/3 more 0's and cruised into the club house for a nice win.
This win puts the Astros at 13-16 and 6 games back from the 19-10 Brewers(yes Brewers), while dropping the Cardinals to 11-17 and 7 1/2 games back(also in last place). The only team above .500 in the NL Central are the Brewers; who have the 2nd best record in baseball behind the Red Sox who sit at 19-9.
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