marquis oswalt
3-2, 5.04 4-1, 2.76
this article says the astros are coming hard after roger clemens, offering him the same $18m salary -- pro-rated for playing time -- that he made last season. they could probably use him; even with surprisingly good aprils from wandy rodriguez and rookie taylor buchholz, the 'stros lag the cardinals in era by two-thirds of a run. the bullpen has been a mess, brad lidge in particular; he's yielded 11 walks and 3 hr in 13.2 innings. but the houston offense, so feeble last season, has been pretty good in 2006 -- 4th in the league in runs per game (the cardinals are 8th), 2d in obp (cards are 7th), 4th in slugging (cards are 7th). like the cardinals, they have fattened up their early record against bad teams -- they're 8-2 vs florida, washington, and pittsburgh, 9-7 vs everybody else. the cardinals are 8-2 vs wash/pgh, 9-8 vs their other opponents. st louis is 11-9 against the nl central so far. after the games tonight and tomorrow, they won't play another game within the division until memorial day, when these same astros come to busch III.