Posted by Brian Joseph on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 6:29 pm

Before last night’s Astros-Nationals game, Lance Berkman called Michael Bourn Houston’s most valuable player for the first half. And Bourn made Berkman look like a genius over the next nine innings.

In a 6-5 win over the lowly Nats, it’s hard to imagine a Geoff Blum walk-off single being the secondary storyline but thanks to Bourn’s performance last night, it was.

Bourn hit a solo homer, banged a two-RBI single, stole a base and gunned down two runners at home. The Geoff Blum single was the knock out blow but Bourn’s jabs and left crosses kept the Nats on the ropes and ripe for the picking.

Now, the Astros are at .500 for the first time since April 7th when they were 1-1 and both Houston and Bourn are putting their critics to shame.

Before the season, the Astros were considered to be the National League’s overachievers from 2008 ready to crash and Bourn was the prime example of how Ed Wade and Cecil Cooper had it all wrong. Undisciplined at the plate, overmatched against lefties and raw defensive talent coupled with an overaggressive nature, Bourn’s 2008 season did nothing to garner support from any preseason projection analysis.

Expected to be an eight hitter who wouldn’t see the light of day against left-handed pitching, the ’stros oft-criticized manager had other ideas for the speedy center fielder. Bolstered by an impressive Dominican League off-season performance and a number change — from 14 to 21 — Cooper’s patience with Bourn and ignorance of the cold, hard facts presented by his 2008 performance have paid dividends.

Heck, ignorance has been bliss in Houston for two seasons now. Last year, the club was on life support as the trade deadline approached yet new GM Ed Wade decided to “buy” instead of “sell” and acquired Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins for some mediocre prospects — all the Astros have these days, pretty much. The additions sparked an impressive second half that was derailed by Hurricane Ike. Most thought the run was a mirage.

This year’s Spring Training start of 1-16-3 did a lot to support those thoughts. Even with a strong finish of 11-4 to close out the Spring, the prospects for Houston’s 2009 season were grim.

Now, 86 games into the year, the Astros are actually three games better than they were at this point in 2008 and Bourn, dubbed the “igniter” by Cooper when acquired from the Phillies in a trade before the ‘08 season, has done his part to live up to that nickname.

Not only is Bourn having a breakout year in his second full season as the club’s starting center fielder, he has taken over the lead-off spot and shunned critics by effectively hitting lefties and showing discipline at the plate. Whatever he did in the Dominican League to address his ‘08 issues worked.

Two games before the break, Bourn leads the National League in triples and steals, has a batting line of .289/.363/.412 and has eight outfield assists with just one error in 723-1/3 innings in center field. Like Bourn, the Astros are also surprising the critical masses with their .500 record and are just four games out of the wide open National League Central.

Are the Astros for real? Most would say no. But this club proved last year that they’ll make bold moves in the face of long odds. In this case, the odds are much better than the 14 games they sat out of the race in the Central when they pulled the trigger on the deals for Wolf and Hawkins.

Can the Astros surprise everyone again and buck the predictions? A lot of that rides on Bourn’s ability to do anything close to resembling his shocking first half. If Bourn can continue to get on base, be a vacuum cleaner in center and gun down runners on the base paths, it’ll go a long way to helping the Astros’ cause.

Not a bad situation for a guy who “should never, ever be allowed to face a left-handed pitcher” or a club that some projections put in dead last in the National League Central, eh?