Not much to say about last night. I feel like I've said that a lot this week. For the third time in 5 games, a Houston starter failed to make it out of the first inning. 19 runs later, well... you get the picture... Still, even as bad as last night was, there were some positives. My thoughts on last night's blowout:
1) Despite everything else, Jose Altuve continues to get hits. The diminuitive second baseman had two more hits to commemorate his bobblehead night, and extended his hitting streak to 6, and raised his batting average to .371. At some point, don't we have to stop viewing him as our leadoff hitter and start considering him in the 3-hole? I wouldn't mind seeing Brandon Barnes or one of the shortstops hitting leadoff. It can't hurt, right? As Danny Glover said in Angels in the Outfield, 'What are we gonna do? Fall out of last place?'
2) Paul Clemens has to be viewed as the big winner this week. In two blowout losses, Clemens tossed 8 2/3 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits. He's certainly made the most of his opportunity and I'm fairly confident when I say that he'll be a staple in the Houston bullpen for the rest of the season. Now if we could just get him some meaningful innings.
3) Travis Blackley made his Astros debut last night and Jason Giambi wrecked it with a 3-run homer. I'm not going to put too much stock in last night's appearance though. It was his first game as an Astro, his first game back off the DL, and a blowout. Let's see what he can do now that he's got the first game jitters out of the way.
4) Brandon Laird homered in his second at bat showing the hot bat he had this spring wasn't a fluke. He finished 2 for 5, but he did strikeout out with runners on 2nd and 3rd an 1 out in the 5th. It wouldn't have changed the game any, but if he's going to be a middle of the order guy on this team, he's got to do better with situational hitting.
5) Philip Humber's ERA jumped from 2.89 to 6.63 after he allowed 8 runs in just 1/3 of inning. Figures this would be the game where we finally scored him some runs too. Humber is now 0-4 and on pace for a 30-loss season. Yeah...
6) Carlos Corporan was hit by a pitch in the 7th inning making him the first Astro all season to get on base that way. That's unbelievable. 16 games without a hit batsman? By contrast, Astros pitchers have hit 7 batters this year. I don't know if it's just bad luck, or if there's just no need to pitch our guys inside because they don't intimidate anyone. Either way, I found it interesting.
7) Brandon Barnes ripped his first home run of the year last night. He's hitting .333 now and I'd love to see him keep getting playing time. In fact, an outfield of Fernando Martinez, Justin Maxwell and Barnes intrigues me. Throw in Rick Ankiel here and there just to mix things up. Again, worth a shot, right? Let's find out what we've got with these kids.
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