Never Pitched v. Established Winner = Astros Lose (The Sequel)

For the second straight night, the Astros are throwing a dominant veteran pitcher against a kid with virtually zero major-league experience. Astros' fans know that this does not generally add up to a victory for their hometown team. Cubs.com reports that LHP Ryan O'Malley will get the call. With the Cubs AAA team in Round Rock, there were several possibilities, including Wade Miller and Sean Marshall, both of whom are with the Iowa Cubs on rehab stints, but apparently O'Malley was selected to pitch.

O'Malley is 7-7 for Iowa with a 4.08 ERA in 19 starts and seven relief appearances. He was signed by the Cubs as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Memphis in 2002 and has had good success in the lower levels of the minor leagues, but has yet to really duplicate that success at AAA. He had been scheduled to square off against Round Rock's Matt Albers tonight at Dell Diamond. His last outing was a decent, but not spectacular outing against Mark Mulder on Friday night in which he pitched seven innings and picked up the victory.