Current Series
3 game series vs Royals @ Minute Maid Park
Kansas City Royals Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009, 7:05 PM CDT Zack Greinke vs Russ Ortiz Partly cloudy. Game time temperature around 100.
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| Wed 06/24 | 7:05 PM CDT | |
| Thu 06/25 | 1:05 PM CDT | |
After tonight's game, this series gets a whole lot easier for the Astros. Tonight though, is another story. Zach Grienke isn't having the out of this world season he was in April and May, but he is still proving himself worthy of the accolades he has been receiving since the season began. He has two and a half times as many complete games as the entire Astros' rotation, and his K/BB rate is a Haren-ian 5.89:1. In his fourteen starts, Grienke has never failed to finish the fifth inning. The Royals are 8-6 in those starts and 21-33 when any other pitcher starts a game for them.
To finish the preview up, I'd like to throw this link in there, made a contributor over at RoyalsReview before the season began. Some interesting quotes:
The Astros are 1-14-3 (do you put ties at the end?) this Spring Training. That's right, they have one win, fourteen loses, and three ties. Can we contract the National League to like eight franchises? We might get some good teams that way.
Here's my personal favorite:
I hope they keep losing. I'm bored.
To get even more riled up, read some of those comments. Wow. It entertains me to no end to see perpetual losers try to trash an organization that has been among the most successful in baseball in the past fifteen years. I suppose that finishing so far out of first every season in recent memory causes fans to look for other outlets for their sadness/woe/anger. As the season nears its midpoint, the Royals are skyrocketing towards another 70 win season, as the Astros are still in the hunt, have some interesting prospects coming up, and are retooling their farm system in quick order.
At some point in the near future, the Astros will have the kind of organization that can once again compete with the big boys. Kansas City will be doomed to talking about their middle of the road farm system from now into perpetuity, as their big league club stinks it up. If nothing else, this bit of premature smack talking gives an otherwise boring series in June some intrigue.
Lance Berkman is auspicously out of the line up because his wife just gave birth the child number three. Congrats Lance!! But hurry back, please.
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