Two totally different nights: On Friday, we had to run looking for information on Scott Elarton. The former Astro who ended up with the Kansas City Royals is now one of the worst starters in baseball, but you couldn’t tell that from his performance in that game.

Two runs and four hits in six innings? Yup. How odd. The Astros often make regular pitchers look on the mound like Cy Young. I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t frustrating to see Houston lose to KC 7-2, being the Royals one of the teams destined to linger forever in Major League Baseball purgatory.

24 hours later, it was a different outlook. Taylor Buchholz was great, granting two hits and two runs in six frames whiffing six, followed by outstanding relief from Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler and Russ Springer. The Astros beat the Royals, this time, with the same numbers: 7-2.

The intriguing thing about last night’s game was that the spark plug was none other than Adam Everett, always consistent with the leather but not with his bat; going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Lance Berkman also went 3-for-4, driving in three.

Astros rookie pitchers have accepted the challenged and upped the ante, with the possibility to see one of them demoted due to the fact Roger Clemens returns this week. And not just that: Brandon Backe says he is feeling a lot better and that his comeback is around the corner.