Dan Wheeler Saved Brad Lidge the Embarassment

Tonight's Pirates/Astros game looked eerily similar to last night's game headed into the 8th inning. The Astros were nursing a 2-1 lead and the way Phil Garner was using his bullpen, with Qualls in the seventh and Wheeler in the eighth, he was clearly setting things up for a Brad Lidge appearance in the 9th. That was until Wheeler served up two runs in the top of the eighth and the Astros lost another late inning lead to the Pirates. Instead, Rick White pitched the ninth. How uninteresting.

There were some big performances on the mound in this one tonight. Ian Snell fanned 11 Astros in six innings, but took a no decision after leaving the game behind 2-1 on a Jason Lane homer and a Carlos Lee RBI single. Jason Jennings was impressive in his Astro debut, striking out seven in his six innings and allowing only a monstrous Xavier Nady homer in the second inning. On top of his second homer in two days, Nady's bloop single off of Wheeler in the eight brought home the go ahead run. After a spring in which he had no extra base hits or RBIs and battled intestinal disease causing him to miss a ton of time, Nady now has two homers and three ribbies in two games. That's why he gets his picture on the side.

Of course the big story from this one is going to be the Astros inability to hold a lead for the second night in a row. We aren't talking about the Yankees here; the Pirates aren't going to score a lot of runs this year. And it's not just Lidge either. Qualls gave up the homer to Bay last night and Wheeler blew the save tonight. Then again if the Astros offense scored more than two runs in either game, winning would be a lot easier. And as usual, this post comes with the reminder that there are still 159 games left and the Astros bullpen won't blow 162 leads this year. At least probably not.