This Bud's for Houston
This Bud's for Houston: Astros host Brewers for weekend set
Rookie Bud Norris is off an outstanding first career start as he takes to the mound in Houston tonight to open the three-game set between the Astros and Milwaukee Brewers.
Friday’s series opener in Houston between the Astros and Brewers is an interesting matchup, and not because both teams are still mathematically in the NL Central race. Sure, there are a lot of talking heads reminding us daily that there is plenty of time left for Milwaukee and Houston to make up the 4-5 games they trail the Cubs by in the division. But trust me, these teams will have nothing left on their schedule once they’re finished playing on Oct 4.
The intriguing part of this game is the pitching matchup. Carlos Villanueva (1-1, 5.98) gets the ball for the Brew Crew with the ‘Stros sending rookie Bud Norris (1-0, 0.90) to the mound. When we last saw these two arms five days ago, each was tossing a gem that for all intents and purposes they had no right to be hurling.
Villanueva, in just his second start of the season following 43 relief outings, threw five shutout innings on Sunday in San Diego, taking a no-decision in Milwaukee’s eventual 6-1 win. That was a marked change from his previous start on July 28 when he was slapped around at home by the Nats and took the 8-3 loss.
Called up from Triple-A Round Rock last week when the Houston rotation was thinned by injuries and Russ Ortiz being cut, Norris was making his first MLB start last Sunday in St. Louis. The righthander out of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo admitted afterwards to having jitters in what was just his second big league game, but he pitched as if he’d been doing it in the bigs for years taking a no-hitter into the sixth and leaving after seven shutout, two-hit innings. Houston avoided being swept by the Cardinals with a 2-0 victory.
Norris pitched well in the minors this season, though his 4-9 record doesn’t really indicate that. In 19 starts at Round Rock, the beefy 24-year old worked 120 innings with 112 strikeouts and a 2.63 ERA. He's got a consistent fastball around 94-95, and clocked higher, a good slider, and has been developing a change the last two seasons which has pushed him through the system a little faster than the Astros probably imagined when they made him their sixth round pick in 2006.
Norris has the advantage of having never been seen before by the Milwaukee hitters. Houston bats have seen Villanueva before, including out of the Brewers pen earlier this season when the two teams met. The results have been mixed with the group batting .230 lifetime against the Dominican righty, but Villanueva will not have to face Lance Berkman who has homered twice in 13 at bats.
Speaking of mixed results, both offense check in running through the good and bad scenarios lately. Milwaukee has been a bit more consistent lately than Houston, scoring at least four runs in seven of their last eight games, and six or better in four of those contests to average 5.3 plate crossings in that span. That's better than their 4.67 rpg tally on the season, good for fourth in the NL. Too bad their pitching staff has surrendered 45 runs in the same span, with Tuesday night's blowout loss to the Dodgers by a 17-4 count truly ugly.
Meanwhile the Bayou City Nine has reached or exceeded four runs in a game just twice in their last eight, and they lost one of those games, dropping Wednesday's decision to the Giants 10-6. Houston pitchers and defenders have allowed 52 runs while going 2-6 the last week or so with the offense scoring just 20 times.
It's the end of a road trip for the Brewers who find themselves 3-3 so far, dropping last weekend's series in San Diego 2-1 and winning the three-game set in LA 2-1. This is also their third trip to Houston this year, with the Astros yet to have visited Milwaukee. The Brewers have taken both of the previous sets two games to one, and scoring between the two has been very even at 29 runs for Milwaukee and 26 for Houston. That's three straight series wins over the Astros on their home field since being swept in Houston early in the '08 campaign.
The following two games this weekend at Minute Maid will find lefty Manny Parra (6-12, 6.33) for the Brewers on Saturday against fellow southpaw Mike Hampton (7-12, 5.14). Sunday's series finale should be a dandy with Yovani Gallardo (12-10, 3.59) facing Houston's Wandy Rodriguez (14-8, 2.63).
This series is basically a pick 'em though you'll find the Brewers slight favorites at the shops. With tonight's line favoring Norris and the 'Stros (-125) and Parra not likely to draw any kind of notable chalk on Saturday, the general feeling amongst the linesmakers must be that Gallardo has the huge edge on Sunday over Wandy who has been slowed by a hammy injury. I'm not buying that. A half-unit each tonight on Bud and on the Astros for the series.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com
Rookie Bud Norris is off an outstanding first career start as he takes to the mound in Houston tonight to open the three-game set between the Astros and Milwaukee Brewers.
Friday’s series opener in Houston between the Astros and Brewers is an interesting matchup, and not because both teams are still mathematically in the NL Central race. Sure, there are a lot of talking heads reminding us daily that there is plenty of time left for Milwaukee and Houston to make up the 4-5 games they trail the Cubs by in the division. But trust me, these teams will have nothing left on their schedule once they’re finished playing on Oct 4.
The intriguing part of this game is the pitching matchup. Carlos Villanueva (1-1, 5.98) gets the ball for the Brew Crew with the ‘Stros sending rookie Bud Norris (1-0, 0.90) to the mound. When we last saw these two arms five days ago, each was tossing a gem that for all intents and purposes they had no right to be hurling.
Villanueva, in just his second start of the season following 43 relief outings, threw five shutout innings on Sunday in San Diego, taking a no-decision in Milwaukee’s eventual 6-1 win. That was a marked change from his previous start on July 28 when he was slapped around at home by the Nats and took the 8-3 loss.
Called up from Triple-A Round Rock last week when the Houston rotation was thinned by injuries and Russ Ortiz being cut, Norris was making his first MLB start last Sunday in St. Louis. The righthander out of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo admitted afterwards to having jitters in what was just his second big league game, but he pitched as if he’d been doing it in the bigs for years taking a no-hitter into the sixth and leaving after seven shutout, two-hit innings. Houston avoided being swept by the Cardinals with a 2-0 victory.
Norris pitched well in the minors this season, though his 4-9 record doesn’t really indicate that. In 19 starts at Round Rock, the beefy 24-year old worked 120 innings with 112 strikeouts and a 2.63 ERA. He's got a consistent fastball around 94-95, and clocked higher, a good slider, and has been developing a change the last two seasons which has pushed him through the system a little faster than the Astros probably imagined when they made him their sixth round pick in 2006.
Norris has the advantage of having never been seen before by the Milwaukee hitters. Houston bats have seen Villanueva before, including out of the Brewers pen earlier this season when the two teams met. The results have been mixed with the group batting .230 lifetime against the Dominican righty, but Villanueva will not have to face Lance Berkman who has homered twice in 13 at bats.
Speaking of mixed results, both offense check in running through the good and bad scenarios lately. Milwaukee has been a bit more consistent lately than Houston, scoring at least four runs in seven of their last eight games, and six or better in four of those contests to average 5.3 plate crossings in that span. That's better than their 4.67 rpg tally on the season, good for fourth in the NL. Too bad their pitching staff has surrendered 45 runs in the same span, with Tuesday night's blowout loss to the Dodgers by a 17-4 count truly ugly.
Meanwhile the Bayou City Nine has reached or exceeded four runs in a game just twice in their last eight, and they lost one of those games, dropping Wednesday's decision to the Giants 10-6. Houston pitchers and defenders have allowed 52 runs while going 2-6 the last week or so with the offense scoring just 20 times.
It's the end of a road trip for the Brewers who find themselves 3-3 so far, dropping last weekend's series in San Diego 2-1 and winning the three-game set in LA 2-1. This is also their third trip to Houston this year, with the Astros yet to have visited Milwaukee. The Brewers have taken both of the previous sets two games to one, and scoring between the two has been very even at 29 runs for Milwaukee and 26 for Houston. That's three straight series wins over the Astros on their home field since being swept in Houston early in the '08 campaign.
The following two games this weekend at Minute Maid will find lefty Manny Parra (6-12, 6.33) for the Brewers on Saturday against fellow southpaw Mike Hampton (7-12, 5.14). Sunday's series finale should be a dandy with Yovani Gallardo (12-10, 3.59) facing Houston's Wandy Rodriguez (14-8, 2.63).
This series is basically a pick 'em though you'll find the Brewers slight favorites at the shops. With tonight's line favoring Norris and the 'Stros (-125) and Parra not likely to draw any kind of notable chalk on Saturday, the general feeling amongst the linesmakers must be that Gallardo has the huge edge on Sunday over Wandy who has been slowed by a hammy injury. I'm not buying that. A half-unit each tonight on Bud and on the Astros for the series.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com