Houston Astros - PlayerWatch - Chicago Tribune

Reuters

9:10 p.m. CDT, April 7, 2012

LHP Fernando Abad's problems with home runs continued Friday night, when he gave up a bomb to Minute Maid Park's train tracks off the bat of Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki. For his career, Abad has surrendered nine home runs in 39 2/3 innings and had troubles with the long ball this spring as well.

LF J.D. Martinez didn't really get a good sense of his first Opening Day until the night before, when he had to run an errand for his father, who was in Houston for the game. "I was in the car, hearing on the radio, people were talking about it," Martinez said. "Then you see people with Astro gear everywhere. It was giving me a buzz. Then the Twitter starts blowing up -- everyone is wishing me good luck. You start getting those butterflies again."

3B Chris Johnson, despite only 793 plate appearances to his name, feels like a veteran on baseball's second-youngest team, which had 10 players suit up for their first Opening Day on Friday. "This is my third opening day, and I got jitters," Johnson said. "So I can only imagine what those guys were going through."

LHP Wandy Rodriguez made his first Opening-Day start in his eighth major league season and settled down after a shaky beginning. Overall in the 5-3 loss to the Rockies, he went 6 1/3 innings and gave up three runs, all of which were unearned because of his own throwing error.

SS Jed Lowrie was placed on the disabled list with the strained thumb six hours before the first pitch of a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

INF Brian Bixler will back up at shortstop as part of his utility role, as Bixler was added to both the active and 40-man rosters when Jed Lowrie went on the DL.

C Jason Castro reached a major personal milestone, playing all nine innings of his first game since 2010 after missing all last season with a torn ACL. "It's a big accomplishment for me personally to have gone through all that, persevered and got back to where I need to be to be able play every day," Castro said. "I'm really happy with the way rehab went. I can't really have asked for it to have gone any better." The day on the field could have gone better, though, as Castro made one of four errors in the Astros' loss to the Rockies.