Oswalt has definitely been hot lately.

his fifth career complete game? really? that is quite possibly the least impressive comment I have ever heard in my life, for a guy, who according to baseball prospectus is a cy young candidate every year, that is pretty pitiful.

for the record, he's a great pitcher, but only five career complete games? I think there was a typo or a mistake there, according to b-ref he has 13 career complete game

this was his 5th SHUTOUT

and his 14th CG

Oswalt's on a bit of a roll, isn't he? He was dominant against the Cubs on Monday.

So what was wrong with him early in the season? Was it just one of those things? Or was he hurt? Or something else?

roy has been on a SERIOUS roll since aug 1 after he got off the DL - but he supposdly got hurt in the beginning of july

i guess a lot of the problem is he doesn't relate to the pitching coach. i think he stopped having anything to do with him about the same time he went to lance berkman for pitching advice. which was right before he got hurt

My best guess is that Oswalt was battling recurring injuries (which were not arm related, but would affect his delivery) in the first half of the season. He suffered an injury in the opening day game from a batted ball to the hip/leg. He pitched badly after that, but improved significantly for a string of games in May. But in late May he suffered another injury to the same hip/leg area in a game against the Rangers. In that game, a "miscommunication" occurred between Oswalt and the pitching coach, and Oswalt was sent back out to pitch another inning (and was pummeled by the Rangers' hitters), even though he said that he might be too hurt to continue. Oswalt's performance continued to be poor for several games after that...and then he was put on the DL in late June or early July. He seemed like Roy Oswalt of old after returning from the DL. His stats early in the year (hitting stats against him with a runner on 1st base) suggested to me that a big part of his problems arose from pitching from the stretch, which might also indicate an injury.

Throughout the first half of the year, Oswalt publicly stated that he was healthy, but I have to wonder if that was just for public consumption. And, despite what he said at the time, Oswalt admitted after one of his games a few weeks ago that getting completely free of injury played a role in his improvement.

My point: early in the year, some commentators said that they viewed this year as the beginning of a steep decline. I disagree. (I'm not saying he isn't affected by age like any other pitcher...just that his demise as a great pitcher was an exaggeration.)