Astros 11, Mets 1

So Aaron Heilman's major league career is off to a less than encouraging start. Tonight it was three innings, six runs, seven hits, two walks and two home runs. Oh, and three strikeouts. He's now giving up home runs at the rate of 2.0 per nine innings as well as walking 4.9 while striking out 6.8. The home run rate is completely out of wack from his minor league numbers (and major league equivalencies) over the last three years, so hopefully it's just nerves and adjusting to the major leagues inflating those numbers. The walk rates are also up ocnsiderably from his minor league numbers, so again there may be hope that what we're seeing right now isn't the real Aaron Heilman. And he's striking out pretty much exactly as many at the major league level as he was at AAA, so there's at least one positive development. Eight starts certainly isn't enough to condemn the man to the scrap heap, but he's certainly got some work to do to live up to the hype at this point.

On the offensive side, Jose Reyes brought some good news, singling twice in four at bats at walking for the second night in a row to put him at .292/.309/.395, leaving his OPS above .700 for the first time since his first night in the majors. He's had a hit in seven straight games now. And surprisingly enough, Marco Scutaro managed to get into the game and had a walk and a hit in three plate appearances.

Tomorrow, Steve Trachsel (9-7, 4.54) goes for his tenth win of the season against Tim Redding (8-9, 3.73).  ¶ joe | 1:06 AM |