What a great night to be a baseball fan: John Maine flirted with a no-hitter. Mark Buerhle tossed one. I don’t have in my immediate memory (I’m still a young guy, methinks) another evening like this one, in which two pitchers were so close to get that amazing feat, practically at the same time.

Meanwhile, back at Cincinnati, the Astros proved themselves they can turn things around, and in what a fashion. Last night’s 7-2 win was a demonstration of how Phil Garner can move his pieces and you cannot stand still looking for results.

Mike Lamb and Jason Lane are not precisely everyday starters, however, they were included in last night’s lineup, and they were, alongside pinch-hitter extraordinaire Orlando Palmeiro, the ones who brought in the runs for the Astros, driving in runs and getting the job done.

And that’s even better since, if that late reaction didn’t happen, a great pitching outing by Chris Sampson (7 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO) would have gone to waste.

By the way, the Astros are over .500.

It was a bit hard for the Astros to get that victory against the Marlins in the first game of this current mini-homestand. After the huge lack of control shown by Florida starter Anibal Sanchez, who had a hard time finding the strike zone, walking 6 in 5 innings. Houston left 13 men stranded for the whole game, against 7 for the Marlins.

Wandy Rodriguez was more efficient than his rival, though. He got 1 run, 3 walks and fanned 5 off 6 innings tossed. But how hard it was for the Astros to get that definitive advantage, which they finally got with a bases-loaded single by Morgan Ensberg on the bottom of the 9th for a final of 4-3.

It was a nice, entertaining ballgame indeed, not boring at all and keeping tension throughout the whole nine frames; but we can’t deny it was somewhat irritating to see how the Astros could produce so little with so many possibilities thrown at them. The Marlins released the leash just enough so they could regain control in the end. Until it was no longer possible, when the Astros loaded the bags.

Tomorrow it’s the final game of this mini-series. Sounds like a nice game to watch.

When you get to see a ballplayer doing something similar to what Carlos Lee did tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies, you usually say "I want to eat the same thing he’s had". Considering that Panama-born Lee had been under a revised regime in order to shed off the extra pounds, we can only say we’d love to do the same diet he is on.

Lee has shown a lot of pop so far; but this night it was too much: three homers, including a grand slam, for 6 runs batted in; making the difference for a Houston win over Philly 9-6. It was undoubtedly the force needed to keep the ship sailing through after a not-so-hot night for Roy Oswalt.

Probably was the unforgiving weather, cold and chilly; but Oswalt wasn’t as his best: he allowed 6 runs off 6 innings tossed. However, the bullpen was at its best: Brad Lidge (yes, you read right, Brad Lidge), Rick White, Trever Miller, Chad Qualls and the new closer Dan Wheeler combined for nothing but zeros on the scoreboard during their respective outings.

You saw it coming: Dan Wheller is the new Astros closer. Brad Lidge will have a new role on the Astros bullpen; and this is all about giving him more chances to improve his current situation.

We wrote an article on astrosdehouston.com about all of this. It will be posted soon. This will give him a chance to recover, first and foremost, his faith in himself; and to extend his pitching repertoire to a point. That’s the key to any pitcher’s survival, and Lidge is not the exception.

Now it’s Wheeler’s turn at closer. Something quite predictable, and now we’ll see the results; at least he got his first save, in a game in which Houston shout doubles everywhere.

The powder sometimes is late in making combustion; but it always explodes in the end.

It was a short but heartfelt tribute for Jeff Bagwell. Now we cant wait until August when we’ll see his number retired; no one can argue against the merits for that.

However… We’ll leave you with these short tips: There are only two men batting over .300 at the Astros right now; Luke Scott and Adam Everett. One of them, as you can see, is the starting shortstop.

6 men are left on base off 7 hits. Carlos Lee is picking up the pace a bit slowly: he drove in a run tonight via a flyout; going 1-for-3 with a run scored.

It’s still early… But we all remember how winning early can get you a long way later in the season.

The story was more or less the same, with some variations. The Pirates took the lead early this time, with yet another Xavier Nady homer. Jason Jennings was on the receiving end of the dinger, and he was able to recompose himself, until finishing tossing six quite acceptable (not outstanding) episodes; fanning six.

Carlos Lee brought home his first run of the year, and Jason Lane went yard, after being in the lineup due to an injury by Luke Scott. The bullpen didn’t bring it with them this time either, and Chad Qualls and Dan Wheeler couldn’t help Pittsburgh from scoring in the eighth with singles by Ronny Paulino and Nady.

To be honest, the Pirates had some great pitching with them this time, and unlike Houston, had a solid bullpen which ensured the Pittsburgh victory, 3-2. Will the Astros call Round Rock early? I always thought of the pitching staff this season as a game of musical chairs, with hurlers coming and going in a dynamic fashion. Will that be the case?

I don’t really like to brag about my own work, but this is not about me. I have just realized that on Thursday, we’ll have our first anniversary here on MLBlogs, and I couldn’t let it pass (and I do it now because I tend to forget anniversaries and birthdays so much). It has been an extraordinary year in which there has been a lot of work indeed, but above all things, we have met a lot of very nice people and we have shared a lot with them.

So I can’t thank you all enough, starting with our boss Rosi Hernández, Caroline Montaño and Celeste Brown, our friends Mark Newman (master of the MLBlogosphere, no doubt), Jacob Wilson (both responsible for helping us making this the first and only bilingual MLBlog to date) and Suzanne Medina over at MLB Advanced Media; Anthony Mendoza from XM Radio, Joshua Raisen and Thomas Johnson (our always remembered ‘Stros Bro!) over at Crawfish Boxes, Lisa and Rita, and all of you who have left us a comment or read us.

There have been plenty of rewards along the way. This has been one great experience, because we have met some very, very nice people. And we hope to keep on counting with all of you.

Craig Biggio waving to the crowd as he enters his twentieth season wearing the same colors.
Clay Walker singing the National Anthem in front of a place in which there was no space for another soul.
No doubt about it. Houston is a baseball town, and today, it rejoiced itself in that moment of optimism and sheer beauty that is Opening Day.

Matt Albers and Fernando Nieve will not start the season at The Show this Monday. They, alongside Eric Bruntlett have been optioned to Round Rock, while Brian Moehler and Chris Sampson survived Spring Training altogether. I can imagine the reason behind Nieve and Albers’ demotion was that of needing more opportunities for them to pitch, and that was not guaranteed right away in Houston.

With a rotation of Roy Oswalt, Woody Williams, Jason Jennings, Wandy Rodriguez and Sampson, and Luke Scott as the starting RF instead of Jason Lane, here’s how the roster ended up:

Pitchers
(12): RHP Dave Borkowski, RHP Jason Jennings, RHP
Brad Lidge, LHP Trever Miller, RHP Brian Moehler, RHP Roy Oswalt, RHP Chad
Qualls, LHP Wandy Rodriguez, RHP Chris Sampson, RHP Dan Wheeler, RHP Rick
White, and RHP Woody Williams.

Catchers
(2): Brad Ausmus, Humberto Quintero.

Infielders
(6): Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Morgan Ensberg,
Adam Everett, Mike Lamb, and Mark Loretta.

Outfielders (5):  Chris Burke, Jason Lane, Carlos
Lee, Orlando Palmeiro, and Luke Scott.

Let me tell you, I have never felt so good receiving a press release as I did with this one. Finally it’s here.

ASTROS BEGIN 2007 SEASON WITH SIX-GAME HOMESTAND

ASTROS PLAY HOST TO THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES AND THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

HOUSTON – The Houston Astros begin their season with a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (April 2-4), followed by a series against the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals (April 6-8).

Highlights of the season-opening homestand include: Houston Astros Opening Day Street Festival (April 2), National Anthem performance by country music star Clay Walker (April 2), Presentation of Rawlings Gold Glove Award to Brad Ausmus (April 3), and Jeff Bagwell Appreciation Night with a tribute to Jeff Bagwell and a special figurine giveaway of the longtime Astros first baseman and franchise icon (April 6).

HOMESTAND OPPONENTS
(APRIL 2-4) PITTSBURGH PIRATES: The Pirates travel to Minute Maid Park for the Astros opening series of the 2007 season. Games are Monday (April 2) at 6:05 p.m., Tuesday (April 3) at 7:05 p.m., and Wednesday (April 4) at 7:05 p.m. RHP Roy Oswalt will make his fifth consecutive Opening Day start on April 2, facing Pirates LHP Zach Duke.

(APRIL 6-8) ST. LOUIS CARDINALS: The St. Louis Cardinals visit Minute Maid Park in their first road trip of the season. The Astros will face the Cardinals for the first time since the last 2006 home series at Minute Maid Park. Games are Friday (April 6) at 7:05 p.m., Saturday (April 7) at 6:05 p.m., and Sunday (April 8) at 1:05 p.m.

The whole text is available at http://astros.mlb.com/hou/mediacenter/homestand.jsp