Quintero: Fowl tip
(c) Associated Press
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Roy Oswalt picked a bad time to have one of his worst outings of the season. Not that the Silver Boot was already lost or, for that matter, the Astros' season too, but Sunday night's contest with the Rangers was Oswalt's chance to prove he could dominate a good American League lineup and improve his trade value going into the deadline month of July.
Instead, Oswalt was torched for seven runs and left in the fifth as the Rangers rolled to a 10-1 massacre of the hapless Astros. Josh Hamilton and Michael Young got the scoring started with home runs and then the rest joined in until there was nothing left for Texas but to feed off the carcass of the Houston bullpen.
Now that the series is over, I can admit I'm quietly rooting for the Rangers to have a great year in the American League. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a Texas thing or a Nolan Ryan thing or maybe I just empathize with a team that, for all their great hitters, rarely tastes the postseason, let alone advances in it.
As for Houston, other than two hits from Jason Castro and Humberto Quintero's snare of a fowl (see photo) in the ninth inning, there wasn't much to write home about.
The Astros now head for Milwaukee with still an outside chance of a winning month. Bud Norris (2-5) comes back from rehab to face lefthander Manny Parra (2-5) in a 7:10 Central start. Believe or not, Houston takes a winning division record into this series (13-11).
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