Mike Lamb!

Tied at 1-1, Lamb crushed Ryan Madson's second pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning into the upper deck in right field, giving the Stros a 2-1 win and Oswalt his 14th victory.

The dude has been going crazy: four homers in his last six games. The announcers keep talking about how he's swinging the bat well, he's just getting unlucky with where the ball ends up. I believe it. His stats look terrible (in fact, in his last six games, his only hits have been those four home runs). Still, he's looked decent at the plate lately and I have faith he'll pick up his numbers. Maybe not to last year's stats (.288/.356/.511 !!!), but somewhere in the .750 OPS range.

Tonight he started against righty Jon Lieber, but didn't get a hit until the ninth. He's been starting a lot lately, and it's looking more and more like Garner is going with tandems. That is, he'll start Palmeiro and Lamb OR Burke and Lane depending on the pitcher. Not a bad idea, since Lamb and Palmeiro both crush righties. (A weird split: Lane cannot hit lefties. He's hitting .192 off them! Just more proof that he's actually a left-handed batter)

Word is we're still trying for a Dunn deal (pardon the pun), but it's gonna be a tough compromise for both teams. Backe, Lane, Astacio and Nieve is way too much. I don't see why they would want Lane and I don't really want to give him up. I'd hate to see Backe go -- two rookies filling out our rotation scares me. But something like Backe - Burke - Nieve sounds about right.

If the trade talks fall through I hope ol' Scrap Iron keeps starting Lamb at first. Burke has been playing very well lately, but still appears in over his head. A .630 OPS is not gonna get it done in left field.