I think I’ve been chanting since opening day “pit-ching, pit-ching, pit-ching”. Well, last night at Minute Maid Park, Brett Myers led the Astros with fantastic pitching and the lineup responded to his lead by hitting a season tying high 16 hits to beat the Chicago Cubs 11-2. With this win the Astros now stand at 3-8 for the season.

So What Went Right? Everything!

First, there was Myers who pitched 7 innings allowing 8 hits and only 1 run (a homerun by Colvin). His ERA on the season is now a remarkable 1.77. This is the kind of pitching the Astros need more of! It’s worth noting that that Astros pitchers have been hitting remarkably well and Myers is no exception to that trend. He currently has the highest batting average on the team – .429!

Second, the hitting was outstanding. Where do I even begin? With runners in scoring position the ‘Stros went 9-20 last night, a definite improvement. In the first 2 innings the Astros had 7 hits and 5 runs. They added 2 more runs in the fourth and another 4 in the sixth. The top of the batting order was beyond impressive with Bourn going 2-5 with 4 runs and 1 RBI. He also added 2 more to his stolen base count for the season taking him to 4. Sanchez was an amazing 4-5 with 2 runs, and 2 RBIs and Pence went 3-5 with 1 run and an impressive 4 RBIs, 2 of which were with 2 outs on the board. We expect impressive hitting from those three and they certainly delivered what we’ve been praying to see.

Where we don’t expect amazing hitting but we saw it last night was from our Catcher. Yep, you read that right – Quintero hit 3-5 last night scoring 2 runs. Of those 3 hits, 1 was a double and the other a triple. That’s not something you see every game!

Oh what a night! If only the starting pitchers could all be like Myers. If only the lineup’s bats were always as lively as last night. There are a lot of “if only”s from last night that I’d like to apply to the whole season, but that’s not the way it works. This team’s got to find some footing and it looks like perhaps they are beginning to do just that. A few more nights like last night and they might just surprise us.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Reporter for Aerys Sports. You can read her Astros blog at www.talesfromthejuicebox.com, email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @agirlinthesouth.