Starting Five: Central = Astros + Naughts

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
The Astros are a game out of first place.

A little more than a month ago -- before the games of June 20 -- Houston was dead last in the NL Central, six games behind first-place Milwaukee.

Since then the Astros have gone 19-11, including Wednesday's 4-3 defeat of the (now) first-place Cardinals with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, finishing a three-game sweep. Miguel Tejada delivered the game-winning single.

More Coverage: Scoreboard | Standings | Statistics

Over that same time, the Brewers have gone 11-17, the Cards 14-15, the Cubs 16-14, the Reds 10-18 and the Pirates 11-16.

Excellent division.

"I think the most important thing is that everybody on this team believes," Tejada said. "And now I think the fans are starting to believe we can do this."

Every year since 1997, Houston has had a better record after the All-Star break than before. In the 2004-08 seasons, the Astros' overall second-half record was second best in the NL to the Phillies'.

"We've been doing this since I got here," [Roy] Oswalt said. "First half is to play to keep close. Second half is to gain ground and maybe catch up and go ahead by the end."

From the Trainer's Room ...
Nationals rookie Jordan Zimmermann, who has a 3.18 ERA over his past eight starts, went on the disabled list late Wednesday with a sore elbow. Collin Balester will start in his place today.

"We really feel it's a situation we're being ultra-conservative with," interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "If this was a playoff hunt situation, there'd be no question about it. He'd be pitching. We're just going to shut him down here for a couple weeks."

Uh, yeah. No playoff hunt there.

Numbers Game ...
Manny Ramirez's grand slam was the 21st of his career, second-most all-time to Lou Gehrig's 23, and his first ever homer as a pinch hitter (36 plate appearances).

In Their Own Words ...
"We've been playing real good but we didn't play good today. ... We just won 10 in a row, whatever that means. We can't do anything about it because it's gone, except come back tomorrow." -- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel after the Cubs ended his team's 10-game winning streak

Advance Scouting ...
Atlanta, 6-1 since the All-Star break, goes for a four-game sweep of San Francisco (1 PM ET), with the Braves' stingy pitching -- this time Kenshin Kawakami -- going against Barry Zito, who has had terrible run support all season.