Astros 6, Express 4

A Houston roster packed with Express alumni visited Round Rock last night, and while the preseason tilt between the NL Central hopefuls and their PCL taxi squad might not have been a classic for the ages, it wasn’t without incident :

a) Former Baylor standout Jason Jennings allowed 2 runs (one earned) on 3 hits and a walk over 4 innings, but all of the damage of substance was done during an interminable first inning in which the newly acquired righty struggled with his location (ie. Williamson County).

b) Carlos Lee singled, hit an RBI double, stole a base, and went to bed with the comforting knowledge that firearms enthusiast Luke Scott is providing his protection in the batting order.

c) Morgan Ensberg responded to being dusted off by Round Rock’s Hunter Douglas in the fourth inning by feigning a charge to the mound, then wielding his bat towards the Round Rock dugout. The local paper will have you believe Ensberg was just kidding, but that’s merely because he doesn’t look very threatening.

d) Brad Lidge and Hunter Pence are already in mid-season form. The former served up a two-run laser shot to dead center to the latter ; Pence (above) was on fire during spring training and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in predicting his probable strong showing in CF for Round Rock will impact Chris Burke’s job security.