The Battle for the Cellar

Written by Chad Potier
April 24, 2010


The Houston Astros and The Pittsburgh Pirates began the first of five 3-game series they will play this season. The Stros came into the game at 5-10, while the Pirates came in at 7-8. Roy Oswalt, was on the mound for Houston and pitched 6 scoreless innings, before giving up 3 in the 7th. (If not for a great play by Bourn he would have given up 4). Pittsburgh put Paul Maholm on the hill. Maholm, also, pitched well into the 6th when Carlos Lee and Pedro Feliz turned on the run-scoring. In the end, Houston held on to win 4-3. They improved to 6-10, while Pittsburgh fell to 7-9. That, folks, is the basis for this article. With the Stros 4 games out and the Pirates 3 games out, by the end of this weekend's series, we could very well be watching the 2 cellar dwellers of the NL.

Last season, both teams were at the bottom of the NL Central, and appear to be on track to do the same this year. But does that mean we aren't going to see good baseball? The two teams are pretty evenly matched. Houston has a team batting average of.228, Pittsburgh .225. Houston has a slight edge in team ERA at 4.18 vs 7.07 for Pittsburgh. It's not just this season either. Over the last two season,s Houston is 18-13 against Pittsburgh. So let the records and standings be damned; get out to the park and enjoy some baseball. Besides, it's not all bad down here in the cellar.

1 comment:

  1. SWEEP!!! So does that mean the Pirates are leading the Cellar Dweller race?

    ReplyDelete