Astros-Cardinals rivalry
The Rivalry between the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals was re-kindled in 2004 when the Astros acquired Carlos Beltran during midseason and stormed back to finish 2nd in their division and win the wildcard. Then, the Astros defeated the Atlanta Braves in 5 games in the division series but succumbed to the Cardinals in 7 games after winning Game 5 in Houston by a walk-off home run by Jeff Kent.
In 2005, however they met again in the Championship Series and the Astros had the upper-hand in the series leading 3 to 1. But, in Game 5 the Astros, thanks to Lance Berkman's go ahead home run in the 8th but in the 9th, Brad Lidge gave up the famed home run to Albert Pujols and the Cardinals would prevail in game 5. The Astros did win Game 6 and would go on to win their first ever pennant in franchise history and move on to the World Series but was swept by the Chicago White Sox. The Cardinals lead The All-time series 331-294 but the two teams have only been division rivals since 1994 making the rivalry series record 104-101 Cardinals lead.
New Directions
In November 07, Ed Wade who is The New Astros general manager made drastic changes to the Astros roster bringing in OF Michael Bourn, RHP Geoff Geary, 3B Mike Costanzo in exchange for RHP Brad Lidge and SS Eric Bruntlett.
On November 30, the Astros and 2B Kazuo Matsui finalized a $16.5 million, three-year contract.
On December 12, the Astros trade OF Luke Scott, RHP Matt Albers, RHP Dennis Sarfate, LHP Troy Patton, and minor-league 3B Mike Costanzo, to the Baltimore Orioles for SS Miguel Tejada.
On December 14, the Astros trade INF Chris Burke, RHP Juan Gutierrez, RHP Chad Qualls to the Arizona Diamondbacks for RHP Jose Valverde.
On December 27, the Astros came to terms on a deal with All-star, Gold Glove winner Darin Erstad.
With these deals, the rivalry will be fun to watch in the 2008 season and the future.