Bang, Bang, Maxwell's Silver Hammer

"The road to being a champion is always under construction." - Bo Porter

For one night, the Astros looked like a contender. Houston outplayed the Rangers in every facet of the game and cruised to an 8-2 victory giving them the best record in all of baseball, and the distinction of being the only undefeated franchise in the American League. I know it's short lived, but I'm going to enjoy this moment, because that's what baseball's about. Some observations from last night's game: And yes, I know this is only one game into the season.

1) For me this game turned on two plays, both of them in the sixth inning. The first came with 2 on and 2 out in the top half, and the Rangers rallying having cut the Astros lead in half. Erik Bedard entered the game to face catcher A.J. Pierzynski and induced a weak fly ball to centerfield to end the threat. A hit by Pierzynski and the momentum swings in favor of the Rangers, and then who knows what happens. Then in the bottom half of the inning, in the same situation, two on, two out, pinch hitter Rick Ankiel crushed Derek Lowe's 3-2 offering into the right field bleachers for a 3-run home run putting the game all but out of reach. GM Jeff Luhnow's offseason moves are looking pretty smart after one game.

 2) Speaking of Bedard, the Canadian lefty looked brilliant last night. He faced 11 hitters and surrendered just a broken bat single to Nelson Cruz on his way to his first Major League save. If Bedard pitches like he did when he was with Baltimore a few years ago and stays healthy, he's going to look like a steal.



3) Justin Maxwell was sensational last night. After an abysmal spring in which he hit somewhere around .150, Maxwell was one of just two Astros starters who didn't strike out (Jose Altuve was the other), he bashed two triples - both of which came solely due to great hustle on his part, he knocked in two, scored two, drew a walk, made a diving "catch" to rob Elvis Andrus of a hit in the 3rd, and made a running/leaping catch while crashing into the fence to take an extra base hit away from David Murphy in the 9th. An easy choice for the Player of the Game.

4) Speaking of strike outs, the Astros are going to strike out A LOT this season. Houston finished with 13 strikeouts in the game in just 8 innings with their 2-4 hitters tallying 8 including hat tricks by lefties Brett Wallace and Carlos Pena. Houston definitely added some pop to their lineup with the guys they brought in this offseason, but they also added some free swingers so don't be surprised if Houston is breaking some records in terms of strikeouts by a team.

5) The crazy thing about last night's game is that Houston scored 8 runs, but didn't even really play to their full potential. We already covered the strike outs, but also consider that Jason Castro, who had a monster spring, finished 0 for 4, Chris Carter, Houston's #3 hitter, failed to hit the ball out of the infield in 4 trips, Wallace and Pena combined to go 2 for 8 with 6 strikeouts, and only Altuve and Maxwell had multi-hit games. Yes, there are going to be struggles, and no doubt games where this team resembles something straight out of AA, but you have to like the potential. They may lose 120 games, but at least they should be exciting to watch.

6) Bud Norris looked pretty good in shutting down the high powered Rangers keeping them off the board for 5 2/3 before finally giving up back-to-back rbi singles to David Murphy and Nelson Cruz in the 6th. Bud's pitch count was a little high (nearly 100 without getting through 6), and he had some control issues (3 walks total), but he finished with 5 strikeouts and only gave up 5 hits - 3 of those in the 6th inning. Now we just have to hope he can build on this and avoid another crazy winless streak like the one he endured last year.

7) ESPN showed a flashback of former Astro, and now current Ranger, Lance Berkman running up Tal's Hill in CENTERFIELD (you read that right) robbing someone of a hit. Can you believe we really had Lance Berkman as our centerfielder? I miss that guy. The Big Puma had a couple hits last night so obviously he can still swing it too. I wouldn't have minded seeing him as an Astro once more, but Pena isn't a bad second option.

8) Again, small sample size, but the Astros looked sharp on defense last night. Ronny Cedeno had a nice play up the middle, Maxwell was out of his mind, Bud Norris snared a line drive, Matt Dominguez made a real nice backhanded play at third, and Jason Castro threw out David Murphy trying to steal second base. Because the Astros will draw the short straw in terms of raw talent on most nights, it's going to be critical that they play mistake free baseball as much as possible, and this was a great first step.