There are three things that I can’t stop talking about regarding the Houston Astros. I thought I’d give my friends a break and talk about them here instead.

#1 – The New “Previous At-Bat Graphic” on El Grande:

This is a cell phone camera photo, and the brightness of the board makes photos tough. But you can get the idea. Photo credit: Greis Perez

I’d show you a photo, but the ones I have are from a cell phone camera and are “meh.” Well, maybe I’ll show you anyway.

Below the lineup of the appropriate team when a player comes up for his second or subsequent at bats in a game, a graphic of the field is shown along with what happened their last at bat. Is the line green? Then they got on base. Is it red? Then it was an out. A dotted line signifies a grounder while an arched line signifies a fly ball. If it’s a player’s 5th at bat of the game, you’ll see the 4 lines of the 4 previous at bats. I. LOVE. IT.

#2 – Brian Bogusevic Hands the Astros Their First Walk-Off Win of the Season!

Last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, Brian Bogusevic hit a grounder up the middle into the outfield to send Steve Pearce home. Astros win it 4-3 over the Brewers. I hate the Brewers. Well, really I hate Brewers fans. There were some incidents last season during a home series where some fans were insanely rude. So I like to see the Brewers lose.

But I really like to see the Astros finally win. This was a win these boys needed, desperately!

#3 – More Astros are on Twitter than You Think

I was updating the page on this site that has all the team’s twitter handles. Bear in mind it’s still not 100% accurate and a few guys that are in AAA are still on the MLB roster on that page, but hey – I’ve got baseball to watch. Anyway, you’ll notice that almost 20 of the 25 man active roster is now on twitter. Apparently the new guy, Tyler Greene, is not. We need to work on him. Also not on twitter – Xavier Cedeno, Rhiner Cruz, Armando Galarraga, Fernando Rodriguez, Carlos Corporan, Chris Snyder and Scott Moore.  So, if you know any of these guys, can you have a chat with them?

I really like posting a starting lineup on twitter using only twitter handles. It looks cool ;D

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

I begged for the bleeding to stop the other day and with a win against the Brewers last night, the Astros have ended their 9 game losing streak. But will the winning thing stick? I don’t think it’s likely for a lot of reasons.

In my house we’ve been joking that the Astros losing streak was because the weeone was at camp, but truth be told, I think the win yesterday had less to do with my daughter’s return and more to do with the insanity of the first inning and the ejection of Zack Greinke. I’m sure you’ve heard the tale or seen the footage by now, but when Greinke and Jose Altuve raced to first, and Altuve was called safe, Greinke spiked the ball in the dirt and was ejected.

I am certain that ejection was responsible for breaking the Astros losing streak.

Now, I’ll give credit where credit is due – the Astros offense was better yesterday than it’s been in a while. They put up 13 hits and attacked the bases full on, giving themselves every possible opportunity to get across home plate  and we hadn’t seen that in a while. Jordan Schafer was 2-4, Altuve 3-4, JD Martinez 3-4, Jed Lowrie 2-4 and Scott Moore hit his 3rd homer in 8 games. The bats were definitely alive. Add to that the 2 stolen bases – one each from Schafer and Altuve and the 2 sac flies from Jason Castro, and you’ve got an offense. Wandy Rodriguez put up another solid starting performance, allowing only 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 in the 5.1 innings he spent on the bump.

But can the bandaid hold? With today’s series finale against the Brewers being the last game before the break for the All-Star Game, I’ve got to wonder if the turn in the tide yesterday was enough momentum to carry over to a second game? Add to that concern the fact that the Brewers will send Zack Greinke back to the mound today since he only threw 4 pitches yesterday. They’re trying to showcase him before the trade deadline and there was a decent crowd of scouts at Minute Maid Park yesterday who saw much less Greinke than they expected.

I applaud the Astros for taking advantage of yesterday’s events and riding the momentum they were handed in the first inning, but good baseball teams create their own momentum and that’s something this young club hasn’t figured out quite yet. So how long will the bandaid hold? Hopefully at least another game.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

How could I not come talk to you about that ridiculousness of a baseball game last night? I mean, really. It started off like any normal game and then J.A. struggled big time from the third inning on. I kept glancing over at the bullpen thinking certainly they’d kick him to the curb soon, but, nope…he stayed put a lot longer than I expected.

As the game spiraled out of control a few notable things happened that are worth mentioning and commenting on.

#1 – David Carpenter got his first major league hit of his career. It was a single hit with one of Bud Norris’ bat. We had a good time with the whole “Carpenter is batting 1.000″ in my group last night. It’s the little things that keep me smiling in a blow out like that one!

#2 – Carlos Correa was introduced to the crowd at Minute Maid Park after signing on the dotted line to come play in the Astros organization earlier in the day. He walked by me a couple of times and from what I could tell, he was joined by his parents, brother, sister (who is cute as a button!), grandparents and all the pomp and circumstance of the Astros front office. He was greeted with a standing ovation by the crowd at MMP, Astros and Cards fans alike. You can’t help but cheer for a 17 year old kid that worked his ass off to make a dream come true. It’s the stuff Disney films are made of. Welcome, Carlos….and best of luck to you.

#3 – In the top of the ninth there were some…um…changes to the positions being played. Jason Castro was brought in to catch because Chris Snyder was moved to first because Brett Wallace was moved to third because Chris Johnson was moved to right field because….well, because Brian Bogusevic was going to pitch.

Yep, you read it right. Makes sense – why should Mills burn a reliever’s arm when the game’s a blow out? He has a great right fielder who happened to be drafted out of Tulane as….a pitcher. And frankly, Bogie didn’t do too shabby. His first fastball? 88mph. For a guy who hasn’t been throwing bullpens, I was impressed. Of course, so were the Cards batters who knocked in a couple more including a homer off of him. Meh…at that point – who cared? It was a novelty little league game being played at a big league park.

So, the Astros lost this series to the Cards, but that just evened the season series up since the Astros took the last one. There are a couple more meetings of these two teams while they’re in the same division….should be fun. I doubt we’ll see Bogie pitch in any of those games though!

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

Jed Lowrie's been spending a nice amount of time on base for the Astros.

I love when the Cubs come to Minute Maid Park. There’s a few things that I adore about it. First, the Cubs fans come out in droves. Generally that annoys me at a game, but this year in particular, the opportunity to watch Cubs fans cry at MMP is more than I can resist smiling at. Yep, I know, I’m a bit evil.

But the Cubs are the “Astros of last season” sitting in the bottom of the NL Central standings and that’s just a whole lot of fun for an Astros fan, right? Admit it…you love it too.

The match-ups for this series aren’t too shabby either. The timing in the starting rotations means we’ll see some fun baseball. But when push comes to shove, I expect the Astros to take 2 of these 3 games and really in my heart of hearts I think they should sweep this team of baby bears.

JA Happ’s coming in with momentum after his last start, the same for Cudly Studly Budly Norris and Wandy Rodriguez has to want to come out and prove that the hit parade by the Rangers last Friday was a fluke and he’s still the pitcher we all know he is. After all, at home, Wandy’s ERA is a very impressive 1.52. Come on, Wandy, we know you want to kick some ass this week.

Jordan Schafer will still be sitting out and isn’t expected to play on Monday thanks to that lower leg strain, but Jose Altuve once again proved Sunday he can hit in any spot you stick him and did a fine job as the leadoff hitter. If Schafer was missed anywhere it was in centerfield where Justin Maxwell isn’t quite as quick (or used to Tal’s hill) defensively. That should only affect Monday and possibly Tuesday.

But on the other hand….let me tell ya’ story ’bout a man named Jed…yep, that SS is finding a nice groove at the plate (.273/.354/.461) and I look for him to continue to hit well and make the plays down the middle.

In the meantime, I’ll be waiting on JD Martinez to lose the “lost” look he’s been sporting at the plate and find his swing again. And I’ll be waiting for Brian Bogusevic to fix the little things that seem to be keeping him off-balance from time to time at the plate as well. If the Astros can get those two kicking it old school, I think the Astros will continue to be the scrappy little brother who just won’t give up.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

As the Astros take on the Washington Nationals this week in D.C., I’ve got to wonder what it will be like for this young crop of players to take on the pitching rotation that currently has a combined ERA of 1.99, by far the best in Major League Baseball. It’s a series that I certainly don’t want to miss a moment of, do you?

The thing about a four game series is that you face all but one of the opposing team’s starting rotation. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but when that rotation includes ERAs of 0.69, 0.90, 1.29, 2.57 and 3.38 I’m not sure there’s anyone that you look forward to hitting against.

Compare those ERAs to the Astros ERAs of 2.38, 3.27, 3.75, 4.15, and 7.20 and you’ll likely guess that this series doesn’t looking like a pitching duel. Nope, not one bit.

But there’s a silver lining to all of this. Houston’s team BA is a bit higher than the Nationals. Could that make the difference? Absolutely. Over on SB Nation Houston today I talked about the problems the Astros are having with hitting when the bases are loaded. That’s a hitting problem that the Astros HAVE to address.

But that scenario aside? The Astros bats have been pretty darn reliable thus far. With a team BA of .255, 5th in the NL, they’ve not been too shabby. Compare that to the Nats who aren’t basement dwellers either, with a .247 that puts them 7th in the NL.

This could very well come down to a series about whose bats are hot and whose aren’t.

A couple of the Houston Astros have had slow starts at the plate this season. Brian Bogusevic who was a rockstar hitter in the second half of 2011 hasn’t quite found his groove yet this season. Jason Castro has struggled at the plate as well after a pretty nice Spring performance. If either of these guys find a way to turn it back on? And if we can see Matt Downs bring back his clutch hitting prowess of the past off the bench? Watch out, because aside from the #9 pitching spot, the Astros lineup could be a serious threat to any pitcher.

Now, I’ve got a few members of the Aerys Writing Staff poking me in the eye over this series. Taunting me with the Astros of the past. Of course I find it interesting when fans of the Phillies or the Cubs are calling the Astros terrible when, if the numbers don’t lie, the Astros have had better to equal starts compared to either of their clubs.

Am I feeing a bit defensive of the Astros as they seemingly walk into the lion’s den against the Nationals? Absolutely. But remember boys and girls, this is baseball and anything is possible. We’ve seen crazier than splitting a series against the Nats. And frankly, I don’t think that’s crazy…I think it’s likely.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

I spent my day yesterday wandering around Minute Maid Park taking in the excitement that is FanFest. It’s the one time that fans can pretty much roam all over the ballpark, get a chance to take a swing at batting practice, have the opportunity to  get autographs from their favorite players of today and yesterday and hear from the front office about the direction of the team.

I’d say this year’s FanFest was a success. With many opportunities to hear about the Astros plan for the future, you couldn’t help but be energized about the transition this club is taking on. I got a chance to talk with Brad Mills, Bud Norris and JD Martinez yesterday and I’ll have thoughts from them in the coming days, but I couldn’t wait to share this with you…

As I was taking photos at an afternoon autograph session on the club level I heard someone yell, “Throw me a ball!”

At that moment, Brian Bogusevic and JD Martinez both looked up and started laughing. I followed their gaze to see Enos Cabell and JR Richards, two of the greats of  the Houston Astros past, teasing the potential greats of the Houston Astros future. Just a taste of the fun at this year’s FanFest.

Brian Bogusevic and JD Martinez chuckling at their hecklers.

JR Richards and Enos Cabell giving the "kids" some friendly teasing.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

2011 wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops for the Houston Astros, but today I’m revisiting some of my favorite moments from the long, hard season. I’ve already shown you home runs and first MLB hits. I’ve shown you the new owner and a fan going a bit crazy. Now it’s time for a little defense.

The most impressive arm on the Houston Astros doesn’t belong to a great pitcher. It belongs to guy in right field. Brian Bogusevic has a cannon for an arm, I’m convinced. There’s something bionic about that guy. I can just hear the $6 million dollar man music as he’s throwing.

A former pitcher, Bogusevic still uses that firepower as demonstrated here as he caught a pop up in right then blasted the ball to Towles at the plate to get David Freese out. It’s moments like this one that made the 2011 season for me. It was moments like this that remind me why I love this game.

Click the photo to watch the video.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

The rivalry between the Astros and the Cardinals runs deep. For many years these two teams dominated the NL Central. This season, there’s been no doubt which team has taken the lead as the Astros have struggled. But tonight the ‘Stros seemed to find steam in that old rivalry and pulled off a 10th inning 5-4 win to keep the Cardinals chasing the Braves in the hunt to see postseason play.

Matt Downs, who had another outstanding night at the plate, contributing a 2 run homer in the 4th, said after the game, “There’s more Cardinals fans here than Astro’s fans. It’s good to shut them up.”

Indeed it was good to stun the numbers Cardinals fans. But it was a night of back and forth with St. Louis getting on the board first in the third inning when Matt Holliday singled to send David Freese across the plate.

The Astros countered quickly when Barmes scored on Wandy Rodriguez sacrifice bunt. And then the Astros followed that with Jason Bourgeois doubling to left to send JR Towles home to put them up 2-1 at the end of 3.

The bottom of the fourth would see Downs 2 run homer putting it at 4-2 until in the 5th John Jay scored on a GIDP by Freese. Astros still led 4-2. The scoring went quiet until the top of the eighth when Albert Pujols singled, Matt Holliday walked then stole 2nd base and Lance Berkman came to the plate. He was set to bat left, so onto the mound came Wesley Wright, forcing Berkman to bat right. The switch hitter proved his dominance in Minute Maid Park by doubling to shortstop sending both Pujols and Holliday home. The game was tied at 4.

The next inning was scoreless and sent the game into extras. The top of the 10th saw Adron Chambers line out, Yadier Molina double on a fly to center, Theriot singling, but with Molina being thrown out at 3rd and finally, Theriot was caught stealing second to send the Astros to the plate.

Brian Bogusevic hit a well placed fly to left giving the Astros a lead-off double to start their 10th. Jason Bourgeois with the sac bunt was able to get on base thanks to an error by pitcher, Octavio Dotel, as Bogie advanced to third. The Angel Sanchez gave a walk-off bunt to seal the game 5-4.

Oh what a night! The excitement off a walk-off (the Astros’ 8th of the season), the ability to make the postseason a bit further away for an old rival, and a win to guarantee no sweep in their last home stand were all highlights.

On a pitching note: Mark Melancon pitched two amazing innings in the 8th and 9th despite knowing his wife was being induced at 10:30pm local time. He headed off to the hospital as soon as his 9th was over. We wish him and his wife, Mary Catherine all the best for a healthy and happy baby.

What a great night of baseball. Does anyone remember a last week of the regular season that was quite this exciting???

One final note – If you go back one post, you’ll see that Drayton McLane thinks Astros fans have no objection to moving the team to the AL and how you can contact him and let him know what you think about taking the Astros out of the NL.

Yep, that's 100 baseballs: One for everyone Astros loss so far this season.

100 Losses.

I’m not even sure what to say. In what had to be the most boring baseball game in the history of the sport, the Houston Astros lost their 100th game of the season to the Chicago Cubs. That’s all I’ve got.

Oh, wait, that’s not true. We have a winner in the “Guess the Date” contest for 100 Losses! Andrew guessed it would be today. His comment back on August 2nd was -

It is going to be on September 17th, against those !@*&# Cubs. Soriano will hit a home run.

Well, Soriano didn’t hit a homer, but LaHair did. Even with that, you got the date right. Congratulations, Andrew! Email me at agirlinthesouth (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your prize.

Meanwhile, I’ll be over here wondering how much better it will be in 2012. I’m not hopeful for much, but it sure would be nice to at least win 60 games. And I wasn’t kidding about the tshirts – #Astros2013 – I’ll keep you posted about how to order yours!

I guess we can talk about this game a little. Henry Sosa was on the mound for Houston and once the first inning was behind him and he settled down, he actually pitched pretty well. In 6 innings he allowed 4 hits and 2 earned runs, walking 5 (4 in that 1st inning), and striking out 5. Unfortunately those 2 runs would be all the Cubs needed to win it 2-1.

The Astros biggest problem? Leaving runners on bags. With runners in scoring position they were 0-13. This has been a problem all season long. The Astros can’t figure out how to get productive hits when it really counts. It’s incredibly frustrating as a fan. When the bases get loaded or there are runners on the corners and only 1 or even no outs, but then nothing comes of it, it’s the biggest let down there is. So the fact that in the top of the ninth with bases loaded and 1 out, Altuve and Quintero couldn’t get it done pretty much sums up the season in clutch hitting.

This is something that, no matter who plays on the Astros team next season, Brad Mills has got to get a handle on. If there’s no clutch hitting, there’s also no winning. Regardless of whether your roster is all veterans or all rookies or something somewhere in the middle, if you can’t knock guys in, your season will be long and painful. Sound familiar? Yep.

And with that…have a great Saturday. I’m going to go watch some NCAA football now and try to cheer up!

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Writer 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.

…you never know what you’re going to get! Last night we got an absolute treat. It was a raspberry filled dark chocolate dream kind of night. Henry Sosa threw his first major league win. The bullpen did it’s job. Jordan Schafer proved he was a good acquisition in a trade everyone thinks was bad. You can’t stop watching the Astros this season because just when you think they’ll never win again, they give us a gem of a game.

In a game where going 1-12 with runners in scoring position was a enough to win the Astros proved to be the victor, 3-1 over the reigning World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. Henry Sosa showed us the stuff that made him a rockstar at AA and he did it against his former club. That had to feel good. He held the Giants to only 1 run and did it on only 3 days worth of rest.

Sosa was quick and managed to keep the Giants bats swinging without much in the way of results. Meanwhile, the Astros found that the new guy, Jordan Schafer, finally hit his groove. After coming to Houston while still on the DL, Schafer just came into the lineup in recent days. Last night he proved he can hang with the best of them as he went 2-4 with a walk and 3 runs including his first home run as an Astro. Well done, Jordan.

Also of note last night, 4, yes FOUR stolen bases. Bogusevic stole two and Altuve and Schafer each notched one. It’s not three grand slams in one game, but it’s a lot of base steals for Houston. And on a night when pitching on both sides was simiply outstanding, it took every little offensive advantage you could get to win this ballgame.

So, hats off to Henry Sosa this morning and to Jordan Schafer as well. Excellent pitching and some well timed and well hit balls landed Houston on top. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight when JA Happ gets back on the mound for Houston. I have my doubts that it’s where he should be, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he does. You won’t catch me waiting for a miracle.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Writer 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.