After scoring five runs in the first 26 innings of their key series with the Giants, the Stros imporbably rallied for five runs in the ninth around Lance Berkman‘s three run yak to pull out a dramatic 7-3 win over the Giants in a wild one on Thursday night in San Francisco.
With the win, the Stros are 2Ω games behind the Cubs, who took a half-game lead over the Giants in the National League Wild Card race by winning on Thursday. The Giants also dropped 1Ω games behind Dodgers in the National League West Division race, which is about to get very interesting as the Giants play the Dodgers in six of their final nine games.
The home run was sweet for Berkman, who had several adventures while pursuing balls hit by Barry Bonds during the game. He badly misplayed Bonds’ triple to right in the fifth and then fell on his backside while catching Bonds’ drive in the seventh. Although Berkman’s natural position is first base, he actually is an above-average outfielder. But man, he sure does look funny sometimes going after balls in the outfield.
Even Berkman’s tater was unusual, as he lifted it high in the air and it barely reached the first row of seats in the elevated arcade on the right-field wall. Jason Lane then followed with an RBI pinch hit single and Raul Chavez‘s sacrifice bunt also plated a run. Carlos Beltran also busted out of a mini-slump with three hits for the Stros, who ended up with 10 hits despite only having five through eight innings against Giants starter Jason Schmidt.
The game got a bit chippy after Berkman’s yak in the ninth when Giants reliever Dustin Hermanson and manager Felipe Alou were ejected after Hermanson hit Jeff Kent with the first pitch after Berkman’s tater. Both clubs had been warned after a bench-clearing incident in the third, when Stros’ starter Brandon Backe dusted off Bonds with a low pitch. Though there were no punches or ejections in that incident, Bonds went nuclear over the low throw, gesturing and yelling at Backe and nearly sticking his fingers in the mask of the home plate umpire.
Dan Miceli got the win by getting one out in the eighth, and Brad Lidge secured the win by striking out three in the ninth as a parade of six Stros relievers bailed starter Backe out after he could last just 2 1/3rd innings.
The Stros now go to Milwaukee for a weekender with the Brew Crew as the Rocket opens the series in going for this 19th victory. Pete Munro and then “who knows” follow in the next two games of the Brewers series before the Stros return to the Juice Box to close out the season with six games against the Cards and the Rockies.

Noah Lowry pitched a five hitter as the Giants won their ninth game out of their last 10 as they beat the Stros for the second straight game in San Francisco, 5-1.
The win allowed the Giants to remain a half game in front of the Cubs in the NL Wild Card playoff race and to pull within a half game of the Dodgers in the NL West Division. With the loss, The Stros fell three games behind the Giants and two and a half games behind the Cubs in the Wild Card race. For all practical purposes, the Stros late season surge to make the playoffs is over.
Roy Oswalt — pitching despite a rib cage injury — had won his last five decisions, but never got into a rhythm Wednesday night. He allowed 10 hits, five earned runs, struck out three and walked four in 5 2-3 innings.
Meanwhile, the Stros biggest bugaboo for most of this season — lackluster hitting — has reappeared with a vengeance during this series. Three runs on nine hits in two games is simply not going to get it done against the Giants.
The Stros take a flyer on Brandon Backe this afternoon against the Giants’ Jason Schmidt, which looks like the mismatch of the week. Schmidt has not been as dominant over the past month as he has for most of the season, but the way the Stros are hitting, they are a convenient cure for Schmidt’s problems. The Stros go to Milwaukee for a weekender with the Brew Crew after the game. When does OktoberFest begin?

The Stros’ chances for the Wild Card playoff spot were pushed to the brink of extinction Tuesday night as the Giants pounded the Stros decisively 9-2 in City by the Bay.
The loss puts the Stros two games behind the Giants in the Wild Card race, and 1.5 games behind the second place Cubs in that race. The loss stopped the Stros’ four-game winning streak and also allowed the Giants to to close within 1Ω games of the NL West-leading Dodgers, who lost 9-4 to the Padres. The Giants are now 23-8 against the Astros since the 2000 season.
After Bags and Berkman nailed back-to-back yaks in the Stros’ first inning, Brett Tomko (11-6) dominated the Stros as he pitched 8 2/3rds innnings of four hit ball and struck out five and walked three.
The Giants responded to the Stros mini-uprising in the first with three runs in the bottom half on three hits. Incredibly, Stros manager Phil Garner elected to have Carlos Hernandez pitch to Bonds with runners on second and third, and Bonds’ hard roller got past shifted shortstop Jose Vizcaino for an error and two runs. The Giants then batted around in their four-run fourth to put the game away.
Hernandez, who has not won in his last four starts, lasted only only 2 1/3 innings, which is his shortest outing of the season. Brandon Duckworth came in to pitch a couple of innings just to make sure that the Giants would put this game out of reach.
Sore-ribbed Roy O takes the mount tonight in a must win game for the Stros if they are to stay in the Wild Card race. If they can pull this one out, then they can try and figure out how Brandon Backe can outpitch Jason Schmidt in the Thursday afternoon game.

While the Stros are enjoying a banner year at the gate, the Texas Rangers — despite their best season on the field in years — continue to struggle at the gate. This Dallas Morning News article explores why.

With the Stros knowing that the Giants and the Cubs had already won their games on Sunday afternoon, Roger Clemens threw eight innings of two hit ball in leading the Stros to a 1-0 win over the Brew Crew on Sunday night at the Juice Box.
In sweeping the Brewers in the three game weekend series, the Stros kept pace in the National League Wild Card playoff race in which they trail the Giants by a game and the Cubs by a half game. The Stros are off on Monday as they travel to San Francisco for their big three game series with the Giants beginning on Tuesday.
Clemens was magnificent in winning his 18th game of the season, tying teammate Roy O for the most wins in the National League, striking out 10, and walking two. Brad Lidge struck out the three Brewer batters in the ninth in gaining his 25th save in 29 attempts.
Carlos Hernandez will pitch the first game for the Stros in the Giants series, and then it’s anyone’s guess who the Stros will pitch in the next two. Keep your fingers crossed that Roy O’s rib cage feels good enough for him to pitch one of those final two games of the Giants series.

Jeff Bagwell cranked a two run yak and drove in three runs as the Stros gained ground in the National League Wild Card playoff race by beating the Brew Crew 4-3 on Saturday nigth at the Juice Box. The win was the Stros’ 11th straight at the Juice Box.
Both the Giants and the Cubs lost on Saturday, so the Stros’ win moves them within a game of the Giants for the lead in the NL Wild Card race and within a half game of the Cubs, who remain between the Giants and the Stros at this point. The Marlins lost again, which pretty well makes them toast in the NL Wild Card playoff race.
With his yak tonight, Bags became only the 29th player in major league history to both score and drive in 1,500 runs. As has been their custom over the past 30 games whenever Roy O and the Rocket are not pitching, the Stros cobbled together pitching performances from four pitchers before Brad Lidge secured the win by pitching the ninth. It was Lidge’s 24th save in 28 chances.
The Rocket takes the pill in a rare Sunday evening game (it is the ESPN Sunday night telecast) against the Brewers’ Doug Davis, and then it’s a travel day on Monday as the Stros go to San Francisco for their big showdown series with the Giants beginning next Tuesday.

Roy O aggravated his sore ribcage but pitched seven strong innings, Mike Lamb hit a seventh inning go-ahead yak off of Stros-killer Ben Sheets, and Brad Lidge pitched two innings of brilliant relief to lead the Stros to a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Brew Crew at the Juice Box on Friday night.
The game ended on an incredible play. The Brewers’ Chad Magruder led off the ninth with a pinch hit single off of Lidge and was on second with two outs when Scott Podesednik lined a single to right on a 3-2 count. With the near capacity Juice Box going nuts, Bags cut off Lance Berkman‘s throw from right field as Magruder stopped at third. On an absolutely magnificent play, Bags flipped the ball to Jeff Kent, who had snuck behind Podesednik, who had rounded too far at first base. Kent got Podesednik in a run down toward second base, but alertly stopped and started crossing the infield toward Magruder when Magruder started toward home plate while Kent was running at Podesednik. When Magruder took off for home, Kent threw to catcher Chavez, who ran Magruder back toward Lamb, who finally made the the tag on Magruder for the third out and the win. The Juice Box crowd was going bonkers.
The win was the Stros fourth in the past eight games following their 12-game winning streak. The Stros ended their night one and a half games behind the Giants in the NL wild-card race, who are playing the Padres in a late game. The Cubs also won on Friday night to remain in between the Giants and the Stros in that race, and the Marlins lost on Friday night to fall 4.5 games behind the Giants in the wild card playoff race.
Oswalt (18-9) now who leads the National League in wins and improved to 9-1 in 13 starts since July 17. He allowed one run and eight hits in seven innings, but his ribcage ribcage injury — which has been bothering him for most of the season — flared up again in the eighth. Lidge replaced Oswalt with a man on second and no outs, and worked out of the jam, and then participated in the wonderful chaos described above in the ninth. It was Lidge’s 23rd save in 27 chances.
Sheets (11-12) was brilliant in the loss, striking out nine and not walking a batter as he hurled his fourth complete game of the season. Other than Lamb’s yak, Berkman’s run scoring double in the fourth was the only other major hit that Sheets allowed.
Pete Munro (4-6) takes the hill for the Stros on Saturday night against the Brewers’ journeyman Gary Glover (1-0) as the Stros try to keep pace with the Giants and Cubs.

After blowing one on Wednesday night, the Stros took advantage of four Redbird errors and two JK doubles to beat the Cards junior varsity (no Rolen, Renteria, or Walker) 8-3 on Thursday night in St. Louis.
The win allowed the the Stros to remain two games behind the Wild Card playoff-leading Giants, who beat the Brew Crew again. The other two primary competitors in the Wild Card race — the Cubs and the Marlins — also won, so the contenders are all bearing down as the race hits the home stretch.
In this game, the Stros threw their AAA pitching staff at the Cards and it was good enough to secure the win. Stros starter Backe was mediocre over four innings, but at least did not allow matters to get out of hand while the Stros built their lead. Reliever Harville was phenomenal in bailing Backe out of a jam, and Qualls, Wheeler, and Miceli all did workmanlike jobs in keeping the Redbirds under wraps for the final five frames. Given the Cards’ errors, the Stros needed only 8 hits to generate their 8 runs, four of which came home on Kent’s doubles and another on Mike Lamb‘s solo yak.
The Stros return to the Juice Box for a weekender with the Brew Crew as Roy O and the Brewers’ ace Ben Sheets match up for first game on Friday night. After three with the Brewers, the Stros then take off to San Francisco on Sunday evening for the key series of the stretch run with the Giants.

The Stros wasted a fine pitching performance by Carlos Hernandez as Russ Springer was absolutely awful in relief as the Cards took the second game of this key three game series on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, 4-2.
With the loss, the Stros fell two games behind the Giants in the Wild Card race and a 1 1/2 games behind the Cubs. At least the Marlins lost twice to the Expos.
Hernandez gave his best performance of the season, giving up only four hits and two runs in six innings. Simply a gutty performance from a pitcher who is still rehabbing from serious shoulder surgery. Springer, on the other hand, was awful in blowing the game in the eighth, giving up three hits, two runs, and throwing a two base wild pitch to boot. Not a great move by Manager Garner in pitching Springer for the second straight night.
After JK‘s two run yak in the second, the Stros offense was ineffectual. After the Pirates series last weekend, it’s not comforting watching the Stros struggle at the plate. Too much like most of the season and not enough like the great streak that got them back in the Wild Card race.
Brandon Backe goes for the Stros in the rubber game on Thursday night before the Stros return to the Juice Box for a quick weekender against the Brew Crew. The big Giants series at San Francisco looms next week.

Roger Clemens shut down the Cardinals’ potent hitters and then Brad Lidge came in to get the final out of the game after Darren Oliver and Dan Miceli almost screwed the pooch in the bottom the ninth as the Stros took the first game of their three gamer with the Cards in St. Louis on Tuesday night, 7-5.
Clemens won his 327th game with seven strong innings of five hit, one run pitching while improving to 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA in four starts against the Cardinals this year. He’s now tied with Roy O and the Marlins’ Carl Pavano for the National League lead in wins and is tied for the major league lead in winning percentage with the As’ Mark Mulder, who is also 17-4.
Lance Berkman had four hits, including a three-run double that highlighted the Stros’ five-run fourth. The Astros have won 15 of 18 and remained a game behind in the Wild Card race to the Giants, who beat the Brew Crew, and a half-game back of the Cubs, who beat the Pirates 3-2 in 12 innings. The Marlins also won to remain a game and a half back in the race.
Although Clemens was dominant through seven innings and Russ Springer pitched a scoreless eighth without any problem, Manager Phil Garner‘s effort to give the previously injured Oliver some game time experience for the first time in over a month almost blew up in his face in the ninth as Oliver gave up three hits and a walk before being relieved by Dan Miceli with two outs.
The Cards’ Cody McKay then greeted Miceli with a two-run double to make the score 7-4. Miceli induced a popup from the next hitter, but then shortstop Eric Bruntlett and third baseman Mike Lamb collided, letting the ball drop for an error and allowing McKay to score to make the score 7-5. Lidge entered with a runner on second and intentionally walked Pujols after falling behind in the count. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch before Lidge struck out the final Card hitter to secure his 23rd save in 26 chances.
Whew! After that adventure, I don’t think Oliver is going to be seeing too many key relief roles down the stretch.
Carlos Hernandez pitches on Wednesday night as the Stros go for two in a row over the Cards. The Stros’ hitters better keep their crank hats on because seven runs will probably not be enough to win this one.