Matchup for G21 - Astros at Reds

Apparently the Astros are so in awe of Roy's pitching against Cincinnati that they can't hit him, either. But happy happy, Hunter Pence came through with the 10th straight Astros win at Great American Ballpark - longest active road winning streak in the Majors. Be sure to tune in to Astros County this evening as Deputy Jason carries his 2-1 Live Blogging against the Reds! Game starts at 6:05 Central.

Wandy Rodriguez

Wandy has turned himself into the #2 starter everyone hoped he would be with four quality starts in four attempts so far this season. The last time he faced the Reds - on April 18 - he threw 7IP, 2H, 0ER, 10K:2BB. In fact, his worst outing of the season was April 12 against the Cardinals when he gave up 5H/3ER in 6IP at Beck's Stadium in a 3-0 loss. Here's the worrying part, though, because Old Wandy might do his thing - that was his only road start. So we should learn more about what 2009 holds for SP2 tonight when he faces Aaron Harang.

One troubling fact of Wandy's 2009 campaign is the complete lack of run support. Apart from the 7-0 win vs the Reds, Wandy has received two runs of offense to work with - the Astros getting shut out at St. Louis and vs the Dodgers.

Last two starts:

vCIN	7IP	2H/0ER	10K:2BB	4GB/8FB
vLAD	6IP	5H/1ER	4K:2BB	11GB/7FB

My favorite stat of Wandy's is that so far he has allowed nary a homer. And over his last two starts, Wandy has an ERA of 0.69 with a 0.85 WHIP.

Against the Reds the last time out, here's how Wandy fared:

Taveras	0x4	1K:0BB
Hairston Jr	1x4	0K:0BB
Votto	1x4	1K:0BB
Phillips	0x2	0K:1BB
Encarnacion	0x2	1K:1BB
Nix	0x3	3K:0BB
Hernandez	0x2	1K:1BB
Gonzalez	0x3	1K:0BB
Harang	0x2	2K:0BB
Dickerson	0x1	0K:0BB

FPS: 16
FPB: 8

Aaron Harang

Did you realize Aaron Harang was 6'7"? Jeez. Did you also know that Aaron Harang will make $14 million this year? Last time against our chosen team, Harang got nut-thwacked, as he was on the wrong end of that 7-0 loss, but he did get 11 swinging strikes off the Astros. In fact, the game against Houston was his worst on this young season, as he had three quality starts to sandwich his aforementioned nut-thwacking. In fact, Harang followed up the Astros start with a 7IP, 7H/0ER performance - where he got 13 swinging strikes to the Cubs. How did it go against the Astros?

Bourn	1x5	3K:0BB
Tejada	1x4	0K:0BB
Berkman	0x4	1K:1BB
Lee	3x3	0K:1BB
Michaels	0x1	0K:0BB
Pence	2x4	1K:0BB
Blum	3x4	0K:0BB
Pudge	2x4	0K:0BB
Smith	0x4	2K:0BB
Wandy	0x3	2K:0BB
Erstad	1x1	0K:0BB

FPS: 17
FPB: 12

Contrast that to the Cubs game in which...

FPS: 16
FPB: 13

Which Aaron Harang will show up? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion...