I am in far too cynical a mood tonight to give you much in the way of commentary on this game. I'm sure Roy Oswalt feels the same way. Seeing that the offense collected just three hits in his first start since he called them out.
But, let's not dwell on the terrible. Let's look at something even more depressing. Back in March, Stephen predicted the five biggest problems that might befall the Astros in 2010. So far, he's gotten one of them right. Roy's healthy as is Bud Norris. Manzella's defense is just fine (it's his offense that's keeping him off the field). Kaz Matsui wasn't injured, but he did fall off a cliff and was released.
So, what's depressing about that? That the Astros are this bad and only one of those things has happened. The nightmare scenario for this team hasn't even occurred and they're the worst in the National League right now.
Maybe I'm being too hard on them. After all, Ubaldo Jimenez won his eighth game of the season, was hitting 100 MPH on the radar gun and struck out four while walking two in seven innings. He dominated the Astros hitters, en route to inducing 13 ground balls to three fly balls.
To make things worse, the Rockies win probability rose to 75 percent in the first inning and stayed there for the rest of the game. The only time it dipped back to 75 percent was when Berkman walked in the fourth inning. Seriously. Wa walk was Houston's best play after the fourth inning. On the bright side, Pedro Feliz drew a rare walk, Wilton Lopez and Jeff Fulchino had scoreless relief outings and Oswalt pitched brilliantly again.
Yes, Roy should have been able to catch that flip from Berkman in the top of the first. That runner didn't make him walk Todd Helton, nor did it make him groove one to Troy Tulowitski for a three-run home run. That was all Oswalt's fault. I'm thinking more and more that this Starter's Week idea was my worst yet. I seem to have cursed these guys even more than they already were.
I really don't know what to do about these Astros. I'm just glad Oswaldo Navarro made his first appearance. Maybe that'll get the jitters out and he can start hitting home runs, driving in runs and save the season...