The Astros opened up the 2008 regular season with a 4-0 loss at the hands of the San Diego Padres on Monday in PETCO Park with 44,965 in attendance. Houston just couldn’t put together any offense and the pitching staff had their fair share of troubles allowing 14 hits. The first loss brings Houston’s record to 0-1 on the season.
The hitting was nonexistent in this one with Astro batters only putting together 4 hits total. Miguel Tejada had the only extra-base hit in the game when he hit a double off Padre ace Jake Peavy. Tejada went 2-for-4 on the day including the double. Michael Bourn had a fairly effective game, despite the 0 runs, going 1-for-3 with 2 stolen bases, and he was walked once. These two guys had 3 of the 4 hits, the 4th hit came off the bat of Mark Loretta who is currently filling at 2nd base for Kaz Matsui.
Roy Oswalt was given the start for Houston and was absolutely punished going 5.1 innings giving up 11 hits, 3 runs (all earned), walked 1 but struck out 6. This is a poor start for the Houston ace who was expected to get his team off to a good start this season. Oswalt was given the loss for the game bringing his record to 0-1 and his ERA to 5.06 on the season. Brian Moehler came on in the 7th inning relieving Dave Borowski , who pitched the 6th, and had a shaky outing also. Moehler went 2/3rds innings giving up 2 hits, 1 earned run, and he walked a Padre batter as well. This poor performance brought his regular season ERA to 13.50 which is not a great place to kick-off the year.
Padre ace Jake Peavy had a very impressive start for his team going 7 innings strong giving up 3 hits and he K’d 4. Both Oswalt and Peavy faced 27 opposing batters but Peavy went nearly 2 innings deeper into the game. Peavy also had a 4 to 13 ground out/fly out ratio in the game whereas Oswalt had only a 6 to 4 ratio. The good news for Oswalt is that he threw near a 2 to 1 strike/ball ratio; the bad news is that he threw 114 pitches in just 5.1 innings, Peavy threw 107 in 7 innings. The really good news is that this isn’t something we will come accustomed to with Oswalt and should see much stronger performances for the better part of this season.
It would have been good to open up the season with a victory but there are still 161 games yet to come. We shouldn’t expect so low of numbers for hits and runs this season considering how strong the middle of the order could potentially be this year. Look for stronger performances from Lance Berkman, Miguel Tejada, Ty Wigginton and Carlos Lee as they should be the veteran leadership this team so badly needed.
Next Up: Houston will play the second game of the scheduled 4 vs. the Padres on Tuesday at 10:05 eastern. Righty Brandon Backe will face Chris Young in PETCO Park.
