Your Houston Astros send Wandy Rodriguez to the hill against Burke Badenhop for the Fish. Badenhop is making his 1st career start and has only pitched 1 inning in the bigs. I was trying to find a little bit of scouting on Badenhop and noticed he was 6' 5" and my first thought was... I bet this guy can bring it... not exactly. From what I've read, his fast ball is high 80's and he relies more on his breaking stuff to get batters out. He's done well in the minors though racking up a 2.89 ERA in 67 games started with an 18-10 record... but he's never made a start above double-A before today.
The Astros are sending Wandy Rodriguez to the hill today to end the home stand. Cooper says he intentionally scheduled Wandy when he did so he could have most of his starts at home and he'll completely miss the mini-road trip the Astros take next against the Phillies. I guess that's smart seeing as Wandy had a 2.94 ERA at home last year and a 6.37 ERA on the road. So far this year Wandy has started 2 games, went 12.1 total innings with 4 runs against. His most impressive stat is his 12 to 1 strike out to walk ratio. If Wandy can keep this up at home and just be a decent pitcher on the road, he could have of getting through an entire season with out me calling for his head... maybe...
A win today will mean the Astros have finally won their 1st series of the season!
Today's weather is amazing. Game time temp of around 70, not a cloud in the sky... this is why living in Texas is so great!