Houston at Atlanta

Chuck James has been hot as he has pitched to a 1.47 ERA in his last five starts and has been consistently good. He has not allowed more than two runs in any of those starts. Chris Sampson has taken an alternate route. He has pitched horribly since mid-June. Sampson has worked 36.2 innings since then and sports an ERA of 6.38. The Astros are a futile team on the road, and even worse when they face a good team. The Astros are just 2-17 in their last 19 road games vs. teams .500 or better, allowing nearly 7 runs per game, getting out-scored by nearly 3 runs per contest. Sampson and the Astros are 0-3 when he starts on the road vs a .500+ team. The Braves take the opener.