The Astros followed up one of their best games of the year (a comeback 6-1 win to make Roger Clemens 7-0) with a fairly lackluster peformance last night, losing 5-2 to Dontrelle Willis and Mike Lowell. Lowell crushed two solo HR's off Wade Miller, and Willis got a lot of groundball outs, as the Astros were predictably befuddled by his huge leg kick and unusual delivery. Willis was nails against the league his first time through last year, too, but they seemed to eventually figure him out. I assume we'll do the same if we see him again.

Wade Miller pitched fine to everyone but Lowell, but he left with 2 on and 2 out in the 5th (or 6th) with 'neck tightness'. Back at the beginning of the year, Baseball Prospectus said they though Miller might have been hiding an injury last year, and he's had some high pitch counts this year. Maybe we should be a little more gentle with him, or risk feeling the same pain as the Cubs are right now, with Prior and Wood both injured.

Today we have Tim Redding vs. Carl Pavano. This interests me because: 1) I'd like to see another solid start from Timmah and 2) Pavano is dating Alyssa Milano. Just thought you'd like to know.

Oh, new Astros blog added to my links: Throws_like_a_girl. It's awesome, and contains some awesome quotes, like how she doesn't like "oversimplified Moneyball dogma", which is the best phrase ever, and how she also wants to have 10 million of Wade Miller's children. AND she hates Jose Vizcaino. Check it out.