Let the homestand begin

This big nine-gamer against Central foes kicks off at 7:05 tonight with Paul Maholm and Woody Williams. The weather today bears no resemblance to the weather last time the Bucs were in PNC, in fact, I think that 67 and sunny is just about as good as baseball weather gets.

We roughed up Williams pretty good last time we saw him and besides the fact that we're the Pirates, I don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue, meaning that I don't think Woody's got much left in the tank. Paul Maholm has been roughed up pretty good in each of his three starts, I'd love to see him get out there and throw six or seven innings without too much trouble tonight, but then again I'd love that from every starter every night. The Astros team that's coming into town has been pretty hot since dropping five of their first six to us and the Cardinals; they're now up to 9-9 and right in the thick of things in the NL Central. Of course everyone is currently right in the thick of things in the NL Central because it's only April 24th.