Follow These Arms

- Give it up to Woody Williams who threw masterfully yesterday in Cincy to finally grab his first win as an Astro. One bad pitch that Adam Dunn rocketed over the wall for a 2-run jack and that was it as Woody pitched into the 7th inning. Very quietly he's pitched very admirably since a very rough start, allowing 3 ER or less in 4 straight starts - his 5 quality starts this year trail just Roy O's 6. Little support in his last 4 games or this could easily have been win #4. The cumulative score in those 4 games is a paltry 11-6 in favor of the opponents.

- In relief of Williams, it might have been Lidge's best outing of the season. 4 outs on 11 pitches, including 2 groundouts and a K - and he did it against 2-5 in the order, Phillips, Griffey, Dunn, Gonzalez. The ERA dips to 4.02.

- Everyone knows about the pitching stud on the farm in Corpus Christi, Troy Patton. He probably had his best game of the season yesterday, while picking up just his 2nd win. The line...7.2IP, 4 H (all singles), 1 BB, 6 K. This first half could be his last at AA.

- Not everyone knows about Brad James. He's a 22-yr old RHP, drafted in '04 from North Central Texas College. He spent 2 years in rookie ball and did nothing significant. Last year everything changed at low-A Lexington. 17 games, 14 starts and staggering numbers. 6-2 mark with 1.36 ERA in 92.1 IP, allowing just 74 H. He picked up right where he left off last year as he moved up to hi-A Salem. His numbers so far are ridiculous. He's made 6 starts and the numbers tell a very good story of dominance...5-0, 0.92 ERA, 21 H in 39.1 IP. He went 18.2 IP before allowing his 1st ER and has yet to allow more than 1 ER in any of his starts. He's not a big strikeout guy, but is allowing just a .156 BAVG. He's definitely someone to keep an eye on.

- Two of his Avalanche teammates took no-hitters into the 6th inning this past week. Former #1 pick LHP Brian Bogusevic retired the 1st 15 batters he faced, before allowing a single to the leadoff hitter in the 6th inning. Two days earlier LHP Chris Salamida retired the first 22 batters to open the game and took a no-no into the 9th inning, before allowing a single to the first batter in the final frame.
---- WEX