Astros struggle in first spring training game

Well this wasn’t how Brad Mills and the rest of the Astros hoped to start their 2011 season. Wandy Rodriguez gave up six runs before his two innings of work was up and the Astros lost 13-3 to the Atlanta Braves. This is not a good sign for Wandy who struggled in the first part of 2010, partly due to the fact that he had a bad spring training.

Hopefully, Wandy can get on track in his next start but Wandy can’t take all the blame as no pitcher pitched well for the Astros including Rule 5 draft pick Anuery Rodriguez. He struggled giving up two earned runs, three hits and two walks in one inning of work.

I may be grasping for straws looking for something positive to say after losing by 10 runs but there is some positives that can be taken away from the offense. The team only did get three runs but they were knocked in by Hunter Pence, Chris Johnson and Carlos Lee who is looking to have a bounce back year.

They also did get 14 hits, three of them from Brett Wallace and two from Carlos Lee, which is another good sign. However there was once again no power shown in this lineup as all 14 hits were singles. They also hit into five double players and left 10 on base. However, tomorrow is a new day and hopefully the Astros can have more positives than negatives.