"We just have to figure it out sooner rather than later because you don't want to get too deep into something like this," GM Ed Wade said. "But it's early in the season. It's not something you can't recover from."

--GM Ed Wade hopes to see improvement from an Astros offense that has been shut out in its last two games and scored only 16 runs this season, the second-lowest total in baseball.

"Offensively we've got issues right now," Wade said. "... I look at it from the standpoint (that), when you look at the middle of the order, these are guys that have track records."

--The Astros are on a five-game losing streak and are 1-6, their worst start since 1984. They're mimicking the club that went 1-16-3 to start the Grapefruit League, going 19 games and 22 days between spring training victories.

BY THE NUMBERS: 19 -- Hits allowed by the Astros in an 11-2 loss to the Cardinals on April 11.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's frustrating whenever you keep getting guys on base and you can't come up with any runs. It seems like we've done that a lot, but the good news is we're getting guys on base against pretty tough pitching, and I think given enough chances we're going to score runs in bunches. We just haven't done it yet." -- 1B Lance Berkman, on the Astros' slow offensive start.