That's a tough base on balls. He had confidence is getting his curve over. He missed with it, and that's a big walk.

Any time you see a rookie who comes into the league, whether it's a hitter or a pitcher, and he does something, it's very rare, ... Any time you are successful like that, it's very special.

The more you face certain pitchers, the more comfortable you're going to feel, and you're getting to get a better idea of what they're trying to do. Sometimes it's that much easier.

A big hit there. Then we could have made things interesting.

As long as we're in it, we're in it. We just have to stay after it for the next 12 days.

Ryan Howard is legit. And he's more than just a power hitter, too. He's capable of hitting for a high average, he's capable of hitting the ball to all fields ... he's done everything we wanted him to do, everything we asked him to do.

There?s still time. If (the Astros) win 12 straight games (to close the season), then they damn sure deserve it.

We just stunk up the joint. We definitely can put this one behind us.

When (right-hander) Lidge is on the mound, throwing 90 miles-per-hour sliders, he eats righties up, ... We needed a base hit there. We didn't need a home run. Chavez puts the ball in play. The more I thought about it, more I realized I couldn't have done much different to get Howard up on the righty (in the seventh).

We won the series. Hopefully that will be good enough. We just have to keep winning.