For our preview on the upcoming Houston Astros series, we sat down with Evan from the prominent Astros blog, The Crawfish Boxes. 

Here's what he had to say about the club. 

The Nats Blog: At 11-14 do you see the Astros as over or underachieving?

The Crawfish Boxes: Astros are underachieving in my eyes. The starting pitching has the potential to be even better, and our hitting is just now rounding into form. A low batting average with RISP killed the Astros in the first few weeks of the season, but were getting more "clutch" hits recently. We've won 3 of our past four series, to boot.

 The Nats Blog: Lance Berkman is batting .167 with six homers and 12 RBI. What do you make of this peculiar start?

 The Crawfish Boxes: I actually made a post about this today: http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2009/5/4/863107/lance-berkmans-approach-at-the

 The Nats Blog:  Wandy Rodriguez is coming off a successful 2008 with a dominant 2009 so far. Does he have what it takes to be a major league ace? What do you like about him?

 The Crawfish Boxes: I think he is capable of being a "sub ace", not quite a Johan/Lincecum/Haren type, but just below that. Wandy displays one of the majors best curveballs with a changeup that has made him practically unhittable at times. He has been our best starter this season by a country mile, as well. As always, avoiding injury is key for the Wand-man

 The Nats Blog: What do the Astros need to do to be successful in this coming series against the Nats?

 The Crawfish Boxes: The Astros bullpen has been overused recently, so if our starters can pitch deeper into games, and our offense continues to get key hits, this should be a series victory for Houston. If our bullpen is continually overused, and our offense reverts to mid April form, the Nats have a good chance to take the series.

 The Nats Blog: What were your takes on the Miguel Tejada Drama this offseason?

The Crawfish Boxes: To me, the steroids issue/lying to Congress was more of an annoyance than anything. Sure, I'd rather my team be full of saints, but ultimately, none of us are perfect, and mistakes are made. He did some things to gain a competitive advantage, and then lied about it. He's not a great role model, which is sad, but I'm a 23 year old guy who is able to differentiate between "baseball player, hero" and "baseball player, man".

 The Nats Blog: Favorite Astros moment?

 The Crawfish Boxes: Game 6, 2005 NLCS. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth in St. Louis, a fly ball off the bat of Yadier Molina landed softly in right fielder Jason Lane's glove, giving the Astros their first pennant in team history.

The Nats Blog: Tell us a little bit about tonight's pitcher, Brian Moehler.

The Crawfish Boxes: Brian Moehler is coming back from a knee injury, is in his mid 30s and is hanging on to a major league career with grit and pine tar.

Once again we'd like to thank Evan for contributing with The Nats Blog. 

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