We Scored!

Another loss for the Astros as a missed opportunity on a potential double play ball turned what could've been a scoreless inning into a 7-run 5th. The 8 run deficit was too much to overcome, but at least the Astros managed to score this time. Some observations from Game 4:

1) Houston middle infielders are pulling their weight, but that's about it. Jose Altuve and the shortstop platoon of Marwin Gonzalez and Ronny Cedeno are a combined 13 for 29 (.448) while all other Astros are 12 for 100 (.120).

2) Astro hitters struck out 13 more times last night giving them 56 through 4 games (an average of 14 per night). Brett Wallace notched his third hat trick of the season giving him a team high 11 strikeouts through the first four games. He wasn't even the worst offender last night though as Rick Ankiel managed to strike out in all four of his appearances. After slugging a pinch hit three-run homer in his first at-bat as an Astro, Ankiel is 0 for 10 with 9 strikeouts. If you play fantasy baseball, you may want to consider starting whatever pitcher is throwing against the Astros. Even Bartolo Colon.

3) Chris Carter and Jason Castro finally notched their first hits of the season. Houston now has only three players still looking for their first hit of 2013: Carlos Corporan (0/3), Brandon Barnes (0/1) and J.D. Martinez (0/3).

4) Brad Peacock has good stuff, but he needs to be more efficient. Peacock threw 89 pitches in 4 1/3 innings of work causing the bullpen to be forced into action early once again. And considering Houston's bullpen has an ERA of 7.53 (and that's including 3 1/3 scoreless innings from Erik Bedard), that's not a good thing. On a brighter note, the Astros starting 5 have a collective ERA of 2.16 through 4 games.

5) Having to get extra outs will kill a bad team. Marwin Gonzalez's misplay of a groundball in the 5th led to 7 runs, 3 of them unearned. If Houston gets out of that inning without yielding a run, maybe it's a different ballgame. You can come back from 1-0 down. 8-0? Not so much.

6) Brandon Laird went 3 for 5 with a home run and 4 runs batted in during a AAA double header yesterday. Keep an eye on his production in Oklahoma City, especially if Brett Wallace continues to struggle.