Reds hot, Astros not as NL Central foes meet in Houston
Dusty Baker has his troops in Cincinnati playing hard the last two weeks. Meanwhile in Houston, the Astros’ poor play cost manager Cecil Cooper his job. Shoulda’ been Ed Wade.
Excitement doesn't always fall in your lap, a wise old man once told me. Sometimes you have to go looking for it.
Such is the current state of the MLB standings. There really aren't any exciting playoff chases going on right now. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels are in the AL postseason, the only thing to decide there still is the perceived warmup victim in the first round between the Tigers and Twins. The NL still has a nice race to decide the team with the best record, currently the Dodgers trailed by the Cards and Phils. Three more teams are hoping the Rockies collapse and give up the Wild Card.
So I went looking for baseball excitement and found one doozy of a race for fourth in the NL Central between the Reds and Astros. The two teams collide this weekend in Houston just a half-game apart for the coveted honor of having only finished ahead of the Pirates in the division.
In the proverbial battle of teams heading in opposite directions as the 2009 schedule comes to a close, Cincinnati (72-81) comes in playing its best ball of the season while Houston (71-81) is playing some of its worst. The Reds started their late push against the Astros who coincidentally saw their late slump begin against the Reds.
Friday's series opener will find Reds rookie lefthander Matt Maloney making his seventh big league appearance against Houston's Brian Moehler. Maloney is coming off his first big career victory eight days ago in Milwaukee. The Astros are 4-2 in Moehler's last six assignments (3.30 ERA, 32.2 IP) with this being his first start of the season against Cincinnati.
As for the pitching matchups Saturday and Sunday:
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 1, Fri Sep 25, 8:10 p.m. (ET): Matt Maloney (2-4, 5.35) vs. Brian Moehler (14-13, 5.86)
Game 2, Sat Sep 26, 7:05 p.m.: Justin Lehr (5-4, 5.30) vs. Felipe Paulino (3-12, 6.06)
Game 3, Sun Sep 27, 2:05 p.m.: Johnny Cueto (15-13, 4.39) vs. Wandy Rodriguez (18-13, 2.97)
WEATHER
I'm finding a 30% chance of scattered t-storms in the Bayou City area all weekend long, with the thermometer moving from the low-70s to the mid-to-upper 80s the next three days. It will depend on the radar screen whether or not the roof is opened at any point in time. If it is open Friday evening, the only winds forecast are fairly light, 5-8 MPH from the NNE (in from right) and shouldn't affect ball flight. Sunday's contest being the final home game of the year, I would suspect they have the roof open if they can. Both Friday's and Saturday's games will probably start with the roof closed before being opened around the seventh.
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 and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Dusty Baker has his troops in Cincinnati playing hard the last two weeks. Meanwhile in Houston, the Astros’ poor play cost manager Cecil Cooper his job. Shoulda’ been Ed Wade.
Excitement doesn't always fall in your lap, a wise old man once told me. Sometimes you have to go looking for it.
Such is the current state of the MLB standings. There really aren't any exciting playoff chases going on right now. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels are in the AL postseason, the only thing to decide there still is the perceived warmup victim in the first round between the Tigers and Twins. The NL still has a nice race to decide the team with the best record, currently the Dodgers trailed by the Cards and Phils. Three more teams are hoping the Rockies collapse and give up the Wild Card.
So I went looking for baseball excitement and found one doozy of a race for fourth in the NL Central between the Reds and Astros. The two teams collide this weekend in Houston just a half-game apart for the coveted honor of having only finished ahead of the Pirates in the division.
In the proverbial battle of teams heading in opposite directions as the 2009 schedule comes to a close, Cincinnati (72-81) comes in playing its best ball of the season while Houston (71-81) is playing some of its worst. The Reds started their late push against the Astros who coincidentally saw their late slump begin against the Reds.
Friday's series opener will find Reds rookie lefthander Matt Maloney making his seventh big league appearance against Houston's Brian Moehler. Maloney is coming off his first big career victory eight days ago in Milwaukee. The Astros are 4-2 in Moehler's last six assignments (3.30 ERA, 32.2 IP) with this being his first start of the season against Cincinnati.
As for the pitching matchups Saturday and Sunday:
- Saturday is one of those games that has a lot of runs and home runs seemingly written all over it. Justin Lehr took a no-decision against Houston on Sep 26, giving up five solo homers in a 6-5 Reds win. The Astros have lost the last six starts Felipe Paulino has made with the righthander owning a 6.75 ERA in those 29.1 innings and coming off a 3-HR serve in his most recent outing at Milwaukee.
- The series finale on Sunday starts with a solid pitching battle between Johnny Cueto and Wandy Rodriguez. This is Cueto's third go against the 'Stros with Cincy 1-1 in the previous two. Lance Berkman has been an incredibly tough out for Cueto. Wandy is making his fourth start vs. the Reds with the Astros 2-1 so far. In 17 innings against Cincinnati this year he's allowed two earned runs and struck out 21.
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 1, Fri Sep 25, 8:10 p.m. (ET): Matt Maloney (2-4, 5.35) vs. Brian Moehler (14-13, 5.86)
Game 2, Sat Sep 26, 7:05 p.m.: Justin Lehr (5-4, 5.30) vs. Felipe Paulino (3-12, 6.06)
Game 3, Sun Sep 27, 2:05 p.m.: Johnny Cueto (15-13, 4.39) vs. Wandy Rodriguez (18-13, 2.97)
WEATHER
I'm finding a 30% chance of scattered t-storms in the Bayou City area all weekend long, with the thermometer moving from the low-70s to the mid-to-upper 80s the next three days. It will depend on the radar screen whether or not the roof is opened at any point in time. If it is open Friday evening, the only winds forecast are fairly light, 5-8 MPH from the NNE (in from right) and shouldn't affect ball flight. Sunday's contest being the final home game of the year, I would suspect they have the roof open if they can. Both Friday's and Saturday's games will probably start with the roof closed before being opened around the seventh.
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 and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
