After losing his job for pitching so poorly in April, Astros skipper Phil Garner has given the closer duties back to Brad Lidge.

In May and June, when Lidge was assigned to middle relief duty, Lidge has allowed only three earned runs. He’s also struck out 30 hitters against 9 walks, two of which were intentional.

But in the 9th inning on Tuesday, Lidge was given the ball in his first save situation since losing his job. He allowed a home run to Mark Kotsay, which just so happened to be his first of the year. Kotsay had never faced Lidge before.

So what’s next for Lidge?

I think Garner will continue to use him as closer, and I think that’s right. You can’t reward his performance by giving him his job back and take it away at the first sign of trouble. That would be like… well one of those guys who gives something and asks for it back.

If Lidge blows his next opportunity, though, and the one after that, there just won’t be a place for him as a closer in Houston.

We know he’s good, he just needs to figure out the mental aspect of baseball right now.

Just, out.

Brad Lidge is out as the Astros closer.

Only a week into the season, manager Phil Garner changed his mind about the once-dominant Lidge. Garner had all the confidence in the world in Lidge preseason (maybe for the sake of Lidge’s confidence), but pulled the plug on him after his five-run performance against the Cardinals.

Ball 4, Ball 8, Ball 12…

Dan Wheeler will close for the rest of the season. His fantasy value has just skyrocketed and he should be starting in all formats. You can probably safely drop Lidge.

Garner even said that Lidge won’t be setting up Wheeler. That responsibility has fallen to Chad Qualls and Rick White. Based on that information Lidge could find himself on a different team in the middle of the season, so be on the lookout for that. Lidge isn’t horrible, so if he picks up a closer’s job somewhere else, make sure you start him.

Just, out.

There were some unusual series sweeps for many teams in the first go around.

Pittsburgh took three from Houston AT Houston to go 3-0 on the season and lead the NL Central. How exciting! The funny thing is they did it without much help from Jason Bay, Adam LaRoche or Freddy Sanchez. They’ll take on Cincinnati starting today in Pittsburgh.

The Mets took three from the Cardinals IN St. Louis. The Mets got surprisingly great pitching from Tom Glavine, Orlando Hernandez and John Maine. Or is it that the Cardinals can’t hit? Their go-to guy, Albert Pujols, was silent all series, getting only one hit. With Carpenter missing his next start, things could get rocky for the Cards. They’ll be depending on Anthony Reyes and Adam Wainwright a lot, and that much pressure on your pitchers makes me nervous…

Perhaps the most surprising sweep is the Braves taking three from Philadelphia In Philadelphia. I have high expectations of the Phillies, but Adam Eaton is going to need to pitch A LOT better than that display yesterday. He had a coming out party in 2005 and got hurt halfway through the year. Now nobody can get him back on track. The Phillies were never able to muster more than 4 runs in the series, and we can credit that to quality Braves pitching more than poor Phillies hitting. Meanwhile, the Braves scored 16 runs in the three games. The Braves have the potential to surprise in this division, but would it really be a surprise if they do? I’m sure Bobby Cox expects a division title no less than he did before.

The Angels swept the Rangers in Anaheim. This isn’t that surprising because the Angels are clearly the class of the AL West, but I expected the Rangers to put up a bit more of a fight. Their bats were quiet all series, scoring only 7 total runs. Sammy Sosa contributed one hit in seven at bats. Other than Sosa, the middle of the Rangers line-up will get its fair share of hits this season — they better if they’re going to compete. Brandon McCarthy got kicked around in his debut, allowing 10 hits and a walk in six innings. The Rangers will head home for a series against Boston that starts today.

The one thing that steams me up the most, though, is Barry Bonds hit his 735th home run the other day and inched his way closer to history.

Tell me I’m not the only one that doesn’t want him to get there.  He sure looks happy about disgracing the game, doesn’t he? It’ll be sad if he breaks the record on the road and nobody cheers. What awful archival footage that will be…

Just, out.