Astros lose in 12, Rangers visit tonight

Despite playing 12 innings, Craig Biggio remained unplunked by the Giants last night, and he was not one of the 3 Astros to get a hit in the pitchers duel. The Giants didn't show much offense either though, and had to resort to the old bank shot off the first base bag to get the 2-1 win and snap the Astros 4 game winning streak.

Tonight, the Astros play the first game of their inteleague rivalry series with the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have plunked Biggio 5 times, but they've never done it while visiting Houston. This might be because AL pitchers have to bat when they visit Houston, and they might think plunking Biggio would get them plunked when they next came to the plate. But, only one pitcher has been plunked in the same game he plunked Biggio - Willie Banks on July 17, 1995 - and Banks was actually hit by a pitch before he hit Biggio in the game.

Robinson Tejeda is the scheduled starter for the Rangers tonight. He has never plunked Biggio, but he's found three batters to plunk this year bringing his career total to 14. Tejeda is in his 3rd season.

Craig Biggio has been hit 5 times on May 18th - by Mark Portugal in 1994, Danny Darwin in 1996, Garrett Stephenson in 1997, Dontrelle Willis in 2004 and Russ Ortiz in 2005. But, the Astros only won 2 of those 5 games.