Your Houston Astros

I haven't blogged much about baseball this year so far . . . I got pretty disgusted with the whole mess, to tell you the truth. I must have "misremembered" it's my favorite sport. :P

Anyway, the Astros are kickin' butt lately. Yesterday they had their biggest rally in 8 years as they overcame a six run deficit to beat the Giants in San Fran.

Lance Berkman couldn't explain it, and neither could manager Cecil Cooper. There's something special going on, and the Astros can feel it. Touch it. Sense it.

When they don't get you early, they get you late. As ace Roy Oswalt put it earlier in the week, if the pitchers keep it close, the cavalry is coming sooner or later.

On Thursday afternoon, Chris Sampson didn't keep it close, but it didn't matter. The cavalry showed up anyway to produce an 8-7 victory over the Giants after the Astros spotted San Francisco a six-run lead at AT&T Park.

With a solo home run by Carlos Lee and a three-run homer from pinch hitter Darin Erstad against reliever Tyler Walker, the Astros mounted a four-run rally to tie it at 7 in the eighth. Then Berkman drilled a leadoff home run into McCovey Cove for the go-ahead run in the ninth, becoming only the 16th opposing player and first Astro to send a shot over the right-field wall and into the water on the fly.

"This is amazing," Cooper said after the Astros claimed their 11th victory in their last 13 games. "I'm just hanging along for the ride. They just keep doing it, keep playing at the end. They don't quit."

They sure don't. The Astros now have 13 come-from-behind victories this season.

"They get down and keep going," Cooper said. "I don't know how to explain it. There's great chemistry in the dugout; everybody's yelling and screaming for each other. It's just unbelievable. The only thing I can say is this spring we talked about it not being about one individual (and being) about all of us.

"That's what it's been. They've all contributed. Every time you punch a button, somebody does something. That's how you win."

Meanwhile Berkman is at or near the top of the stats leaderboard.

GO 'STROS!!