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Tonight will mark the second time that Bronson Arroyo has faced Roy Oswalt during their careers. The good news is that the Astros lost that game. The bad is that they were facing the Pirates. That's right, despite pitching in the same division for the last 4 seasons, Arroyo and Oswalt have not pitched against each other since 2001, when Oswalt was a rookie and Arroyo was a Pirate. Arroyo threw 7 innings that day, but left the game trailing 4-2. By the bottom of the 9th inning, the Astros led 8-2. Then the Pirates decided to make it a game, scoring 7 runs in the 9th inning, including a Brian Giles walk-off grand slam of Billy Wagner to win it. All of the runs scored after 2 outs in the inning. If I cared about either of those teams, that would have been a helluva game to watch.
Hopefully tonight's game will be less stressful but will have a similar result for the two pitcher's teams. You'll hear a lot tonight about Oswalt's dominance of the Reds, including his outstanding 23-1 record versus the Redlegs. However, the Reds have beaten the Astros 8 times in their history when Oswalt started, including three times last season. In the words of the Matrix, there is no spoon.
Lost in the shuffle of Harangony (Harang agony - get it?), is that Bronson has been Badroyo since his first start of the year. This needs to stop. We've seen the last two nights that decent pitching can top these Astros. You don't have to be superb, Arroyo, just be around the plate. But please, for the love of god, do not throw a hittable pitch to Lance Berkman. We don't need that guy screwing this thing up for us.