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0-5, 5.66 |
1-2, 6.14 |
the astros pursued an off-season strategy that a lot of st louis fans wanted the cardinals to employ: they were aggressive in adding established players from outside the organization. and not cheap reclamations, either --- houston got the best starting pitcher available on the trade market, jason jennings, and one of the best hitters on the free-agent market, carlos lee. they also brought in a veteran pitcher coming off a solid year in woody williams, and they beefed up the bench with the addition of mark loretta.
fat lotta good it has done them. the astros find themselves in nearly as bad a position as the cardinals, near the bottom of the league in hitting and middle-packish in pitching. williams appears to be finished --- his k/w ratio is 1:1, and opposing hitters have tuned him up for a .291 / .356 / .493 line so far. and the astros' run producers have struggled nearly as badly as the cards': berkman is slugging .337, ensberg is slugging .377, lee has an ops below .800, and 2006 sensation luke scott has an ops below .700. the primary difference between them and the cardinals is that roy oswalt has made 7 starts while carpenter has made 1.
the cards will miss oswalt in this series, a much-needed stroke of good fortune; they'll face 3 right-handed pitchers, two of whom sport era's in the 5.00s --- the easiest set of opposition starters they have faced all season. perfect opportunity for the offense to get untracked. if the cardinals can't hang 4 or 5 on every one of these guys, then maybe it really is time to throw in the towel.