It's an odd thing to be in an elevator with so much pastrami

Yhency Brazoban is officially back, and should provide a little boost to what has been an overworked pen.  Brazoban pitched very well in the minors, working his arm and himself back into Big League shape (though that shape is still pretty round), giving up one run in four AAA innings, and three in 10.2 in AA ball, with 13 strikeouts.  "He's had a pretty good test (in the minors), he's gone out back to back four or five times.  He just gives us one more weapon out there, sort of an early inning guy.  I think between him and (Scott) Proctor, you can sort of interchange them back and forth.  (Corey) Wade would probably be more our early inning guy, and these two more for the sixth and seventh."

Torre said they would be willing to use Brazoban for more than one inning if need be, as it's something he's done in the minors.  Hopefully, he won't have to. "We need our starters to eventually get us into the seventh inning, and at that point in time I think our bullpen, first off we'd be able to rest people, and keep everybody pretty fresh."

Asked if he thought Brazoban looked slimmer than he had before... Torre laughed. "No."  Still Braz has lost some weight, maybe 10 pounds or so.  He's still got that Ray King/Junkyard Dog thing going, though. 

The question of Clayton Kershaw again came up, and not surprisingly, Torre wasn't giving anything away.  "He's going to help us, but as far as when, I don't know."  I asked him if, generally speaking, he felt that too many pitchers were coming up too fast.  "I think we're overly careful- when I say "we," I mean baseball.  When you look back at the experience that Minnesota had with Liriano, or the Cubs with their two young pitchers, was that the reason (they got hurt)?  I don't know.  But I think it's probably put that red flag up in a lot of organizations, especially with the scarcity of pitching.  When you have something that you think is pretty special, you try to do the right thing, even if you error on the side of safety.  I think that's where we are right now."  More on this in the audio below, worth a listen. 

On the always controversial 3B situation, Torre said he's spoken to Andy LaRoche in Vegas, and it was clear he made him no promises of a quick recall.  "I expressed to him how proud I was that he worked his tail off to get back as soon as he did.  Just don't lose that, because during a season of 162 games, you never know when that phone is going to ring, and you want to make sure that you're ready if you're needed.  There's no promises when you send anybody out.  None of us envisioned Blake DeWitt coming up here and doing what he's done, but you can't ignore it now that he's done that.  It's easy to say we'll call you up, but who are we going to send out?  That's the trick."  Again, more in the audio. 

LINEUPS: Beware Lance Berkman, who is 13 for his last 16 (.815), nad has reached base safely in 17 of his last 20 trips to the plate.  Damn.  For that matter, the middle of the Hosuton lineup, with Berkman, Miguel Tejada, and Carlos Lee has gone crazy of late.  It won't be easy for Derek Lowe. 

ASTROS-

Michael Bourn- CF
Kaz Matsui- 2B
Miguel Tejada- SS
Lance Berkman- 1B
Carlos Lee- LF
Geoff Blum- 3B
Hunter Pence- CF
Brad Ausmus- C
Brian Moehler- P

DODGERS- No Ethier tonight, Jones is back.

Juan Pierre- LF
Russell Martin- C
Matt Kemp- RF
Jeff Kent- 2B
James Loney- 1B
Andruw Jones- CF
Blake DeWitt- 3B
Chin-lung Hu- SS
Derek Lowe- P

AUDIO:

Joe Torre:

• Download joe_torre_5.9 on Furcal, Brazoban.mp3
• Download joe_torre_5.9 II on Kershaw.mp3
• Download joe_torre_5.9 on 3B, touch up work.mp3
• Download joe_torre_5.9 IV on Jones.mp3

BK