Wanderful and the Doc hits PNC Park

Well,so much for that.
Houston's Wandy Rodriguez,who was the leagues worst starter on the road last season,baffled the Bucs for six innings and led the visiting Houston Oranges (er,Astros) to a 2-0 win over Pittsburgh.
Houston scored the only run that they would need in the first when a tough,but catchable ball deflected off the glove of Xavier Nady.
This continues a trend of balls that Nady misplays and turns out to be the game difference.
The Pirates loaded the bases in the sixth,but Adam LaRoche's soft liner was snared by Miguel Tejada and the Pirates would fail to get another runner on first base for the remainder of the game.
Battlin Bob's guy Phil Dumatrait was the tough luck loser to fall to 2-3.
Dumatrait allowed the only two runs in 6 innings on 7 hits,fanned four and walked three and generally pitched reasonably well.
Battlin Bob and I discussed Dumatrait last night and according to the Battler,I am one of the few that has not been impressed by the lefty.
To me,his stuff is not good enough to get away with the amount of hitters that he walks and sooner or later that will catch up to him.
Hope I am wrong.
The series continues tonight-weather permitting.

Pitching Matchup
Houston:Roy Oswalt (4-5 5.45 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Zach Duke (2-4 4.41 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Roy Oswalt is my favorite pitcher pitching today and he has struggled a bit this season,but his record vs the Pirates is tremendous-11-5 with a 2.52 ERA and his last 8 starts is even better- 5-0 with a 1.84 ERA.
Here is hoping for a good Oswalt outing,a no decision and Pittsburgh then smacks the Houston bullpen around.

Two of my favorite teams worlds collided last night in Pittsburgh as New Jersey Devil play by play man Mike "Doc" Emrick threw out the first pitch before the game at PNC Park.
Doc also spent an inning with another favorite,Lanny Frattare in the TV booth,so I guess he had to suffer through an inning with Greg Brown on the radio side as well.
Emrick is town for tonight's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals and is a known Pirate fanatic.

Ryan Doumit is rehabbing at Altoona and word is that when Doumit returns to the lineup that Joggin Ronny Paulino could be the catcher going to Indianapolis not veteran warhorse Raul Chavez.
I like this move,Chavez is much more suited to the backup catcher role and Paulino sure has not shown anything this season to deserve to stay.

In another dig at the opposition,number two premium network Showtime picked up Inside the NFL after the shows long-time network and clear industry leader HBO dropped the show after 31 years.
Showtime is owned by CBS,so expect a CBS guy to fill the Bob Costas position on the show.
I have a feeling that it could be Gus Johnson.
Maybe then we can hear voiceovers from Johnson screaming at the top of his lungs about Jacksonville's 24-6 win over Houston being the greatest 24-6 game ever played every week.

Until next time
Photo Credits
Rodriguez-Don Wright-AP Photo
Emrick and the Parrot-Bruce Bennett-Getty Images