Ugh x 1,000,000. The Astros have begun the 2010 season the same way they finished the 2009 one: with a thud. Today's game was especially painful, considering that Samuel Gervacio was placed on the DL with a strained rotator cuff. Wilton Lopez is on his way to Houston...so there's that!
Trying to lend some amount of perspective on this game is proving difficult for me, as I think we all are feeling the same about where our Astros stand currently. This was an all around disappointing series and in a way it feels like the team is still in Spring Training. I hate to mention words like "urgency" and "must win" after just three games, but the Astros need to play with some urgency this weekend against the 2009 NL Pennant winning Phillies. These truly are must win games in my estimation. Not must win in the sense that our season will be made or broken depending on their outcome, but a team suffering from injuries, and playing with a talent deficit as it is will be hard pressed to recover from an 0-6 start.
Maybe this is how we learn Brad Mills' value. After the Astros played through rough patches last season, the team would seem dazed for games on end. This could have been an effect of Cecil Cooper's now infamous mood swings, something that the team obviously couldn't cope with after too long. With Coop gone, Brad Mills steady as she goes demeanor will hopefully pay dividends. With his club pressing, hopefully Mills can lean on his experiences as Terry Francona's right hand man and give the Astros a different kind of medicine than they've been used to.
No reason to sugar coat this situation: the Astros just got swept, dominated and are facing the best team in the National League in the next series. Roy Halladay is coming to town. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and all the rest will face down our pitchers. Maybe, just maybe, all our ex Phillies will create a rip in the space-time continuum when they're on the same field as the current Phillies. Our 2010 team will be switched with our 1980 club that played the...wait for it...Phillies in the NL Championship series! Yeesss....gotta love the symmetry.
Sam Cooke, the post is all yours