Roy Oswalt turned in a good start yesterday for the Astros after a terrifying beginning to the season. Oswalt had been identified as a bona fide Laggard in all three of Mike’s first-round Leaders & Laggards posts for pitchers (here, here, and here), leading him to the conclusion that Oswalt had been suffering from a perfect storm of bad luck to start the season. Last night’s game showed that Oswalt is still capable of performing well when the luck goes his way. Through seven innings of a 2-1 win over the Phillies, he gave up five hits, two walks, and one run, and struck out four. It was his first win of the season, and the one-run performance brought his season ERA down to 6.65, which should give you an idea of how painful his first three starts were.

Michael Bourn crossed the plate for both of Houston’s runs, pushing himself around in the fifth with a solo home run. Bourn isn’t projected for much power this year (the most generous projections give him five home runs) but he does have speed–he stole a base yesterday to bring his season total to eight, well on the way to both the most conservative projections (18 SB) and the most optimistic (58).