JK hit a grand salami today as the Stros won their 14th game of the last 17 in obliterating the Reds for the third straight time at the Great American Ballpark in Cincy, 9-3. In sweeping the three-game series against the Reds, the Stros cranked 10 yaks and scored 28 runs.
Roy O (16-9) improved to 10-0 in 14 career games against the Reds by allowing three runs and six hits in six innings, walking three and striking out four. However, he left after the sixth with discomfort in the same area of his abdomen that gave him problems earlier in the year.
Even with this recent surge, the Stros chances of winning the Wild Card playoff spot are not great. They become virtually non-existent if Oswalt is injured and cannot pitch down the stretch effectively.
The Stros pounded Reds pitching again for 12 hits. Lance Berkman led the way with three hits, including a solo tater. The Stros hitters enjoyed their batting practice with the Reds’ pitchers over the past several days.
After a well-deserved off day on Thursday, the Stros send the Rocket to the hill to start a weekend series with the Pirates at the Juice Box on Friday night. The Reds follow the Pirates for a series early next week.

Brandon Backe hurled six shutout innings in only his third start as a starting pitcher and JK pummeled to yaks as the red hot Stros blasted the Reds in Cincy at the Great American Ballpark, 8-0.
The win was the Stros’ fifth straight and 13th in their last 17 games. Incredibly, the win brought the Stros within three games of the Cubs, who are currently in the lead for the National League Wild Card playoff spot. What a run!
Backe gave up only three hits in his six frames as he continues his unlikely journey from backend reliever to a potential fourth or fifth starter. Stros relievers Chad Qualls, Mike Gallo and Dan Wheeler allowed a combined three hits over the final three innings to secure the Stros’ 11th shutout of the season.
In addition to JK’s two crank jobs, Beltran, Bags and Berkman had some fun in the fifth when they hammered back-to-back-to-back taters. The Reds pitching is so bad that even that uprising did not prompt the removal of starter Aaron Harang.
The Stros have a good chance of keeping it going in tomorrow’s Businessman’s Special as Roy O goes for his 16th win against Paul Wilson (9-4), who is the Reds’ best starter. After a well-deserved off day on Thursday, the Stros and the Rocket start a weekender with the Pirates at the Juice Box on Friday night.

Lance Berkman cranked two yaks and a double and knocked in four RBI’s as the red hot Stros crushed the reeling Reds on Monday night in Cincy, 11-3. The Stros have now won four straight and 12 out of their last 16 games as they continue their push to get back in the National League Wild Card playoff race. The Stros trail the Cubs by 4.5 games for the Wild Card playoff berth.
Berkman’s hitting was contagious on Monday night as light-hitting Brad Ausmus even pounded a three run tater. The Stros continued hammering the ball, ringing up 11 hits, including 3 homers and 4 doubles. Pete Munro got the win by giving up 3 runs on 8 hits in five innings and led the Stros AAA relief corps, which included long lost Russ Springer, who reappeared as a Stro this week seven years after his initial tenure with the club.
Brandon Backe hopes the Stros hitters keep their hitting clothes on Tuesday night as he takes the hill for the Stros in the second game of the series on Tuesday. Based on Backe’s most recent performance in Chicago, the Stros will likely need every run they can generate.

What a difference a week makes.
Last Sunday, Roy O nailed Michael Barrett and the Cubs pounded the Stros so badly that I wrote off the Stros playoff chances completely. Just to make sure, the Cubs pounded a listless Stros team again this past Thursday. The Stros appeared washed up.
Then, the Cubs’ Barrett confronted Oswalt in the batters’ box in the second inning of Friday’s game and, almost magically, the fortunes of these two clubs changed. The Stros were galvanized, and started cranking against any Cubs pitcher who took the mound. On the other hand, the Cubs began pitching and playing tentatively, and before you know it, the Stros had scored 32 runs in the final three game of the series, won them all, and now find themselves four games out of the Wild Card playoff spot with 32 games to go.
I don’t think the Stros can win the Wild Card, but I did underestimate the pluckiness of this club. They will not go down meekly. They have now won 11 of their last 14 games.
Lance Berkman homered and Carlos Hernandez earned his first major league win in almost two years in leading the Stros to a 10-3 win over the Cuts at Wrigley on Sunday afternoon in the final meeting of the two clubs’ chippy season series. Jeff Bagwell capped a big weekend with three hits for the Stros as he went 10-for-18 with seven RBI in the four game series.
As was typical of the last five games between the clubs, getting hit by pitches was a big part of the game. Carlos Beltran left with a bruised knee after he was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning and is day-to-day. Later in the inning, Berkman was plunked in the helmet by Cubs’ reliever Mike Remlinger. Berkman went to the ground and stayed down for several minutes.
Incredibly, Remlinger and some of the idiot Cubs believe Berkman was pulling a stunt. Accordingly, in one of the more classless displays that I have seen in quite some time, a good part of the Cubs crowd actually booed Berkman when he came to the plate again in the ninth!
The Stros proceeded to score five times in the eighth inning to add to its 5-3 lead and put this one away for Hernandez, who was making his fourth start after coming up from AAA New Orleans, Hernandez allowed three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
The benches emptied for the second time in the four-game series and the third time in a week when new Stros reliever Dan Wheeler (just acquired from the Mets) hit Derrek Lee in the back with a pitch in the ninth (what did the Cubs expect after the Beltran and Berkman beanings?). Wheeler and Garner were ejected and Remlinger and JK jawed with each other colorfully, but no punches were thrown.
The Stros are now off to Cincy to face the Reds, who have the worst pitching staff in Major League Baseball. So, it is time for the Stros to pad their hitting statistics, particularly given that Pete Munro and Brandon Backe are doubtful to keep the hard-hitting Reds’ lineup from scoring quite a few runs in the first two games of the series. After three games in Cincy and an off day on Thursday, the Stros return to the Juice Box for a weekend series with the Pirates and three more next week with the Reds.

The Stros won their 10th game in their last 13 as they edged the Cubs on a windy Saturday afternoon at Wrigley, 7-6.
You know things are going well when you score three runs on an infield grounder, and that’s exactly what the Stros did in the second inning of this game. Bags nailed a bases loaded grounder to first in the second, Cubs pitcher Zambrano dropped the throw from Cubs first baseman Lee as one run scored and then Bidg sought to score another in the confusion. Cubs catcher Barrett dropped the throw from Zambrano allowing Bidg to score, and Beltran alertly came home with the third run when the ball got away from Barrett. Just like we used to do it in T-ball.
The Rocket got his 14th win as he battled in giving up 8 hits and 5 runs over his six innings. Lidge again was solid in securing the win, throwing 37 pitches over the last 1 2/3rd’s innings. Bags had three hits and two RBI’s, as he appears to have his game face on for the Cubs after becoming quite irritated with Barrett’s behavior yesterday with Roy O over the Beanball Chronicles.
Carlos Hernandez tries to keep it going for the Stros tomorrow against Matt Clement. The Cubbies will be leaking some serious oil if the Stros take three out of four from them at Wrigley.

For one afternoon, the Stros shook off the weight of a disappointing season and hammered the cocky Cubs with five yaks in winning easily at Wrigley on Friday afternoon, 15-7.
Things got a little chippy again between the Cubs’ Michael Barrett and Roy Oswalt just five days after Oswalt was ejected for beaning Barrett with a pitch in the back following a Cubs’ homer. Both benches emptied after Barrett confronted Oswalt as he stepped into the batter’s box in the second. After the umpires clearly warned Barrett to knock it off, he continued baiting Oswalt as he ran back to the dugout after grounding out. Later the Cubs’ Kent Mercher intentionally hit Oswalt with a pitch, but the umpiring crew again did not eject anyone.
Inasmuch as Oswalt was ejected a week earlier without even a warning, the umpires need to get their criteria together for throwing players out of games. Sheesh!
At any rate, Oswalt (15-9) allowed six runs in eight innings for the win on a hot and muggy afternoon at Wrigley, but he retired 13 batters in a row from the fourth inning until giving up a single and a two-run homer to Nomar Garciaparra with two outs in the eighth.
The Stros jumped on the Cubs’ Kerry Wood for four runs in the first and never looked back, whacking him for eight runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings, including four of the taters. Beltran led the way with two yaks and four RBI, and since coming to the National League in June, he is 11-for-21 with seven homers and 11 RBI in five games at Wrigley Field.
I think the Cubs need to pitch around that guy.
Bags and Berkman hit back-to-back solo shots off Wood, and JK added another yak as the Stros cranked out 17 hits for a gaudy 37 total bases. The win was the ninth for the Stros in their last 12 games.
In a personnel note, the Stros mercifully released David Weathers after the game, who came over from the Mets in the Hidalgo salary dump. Weathers looks washed up, although his runs saved against average is not as bad as some of the Stros’ bullpen. However, Weathers is earning over $3 million, and the Stros are not interested in retaining him at anywhere near that compensation level. So, it was time for a divorce.
The Rocket takes the hill on Saturday as the Stros try to maintain the momentum of their best play since their great start in April.

Brandon Backe came crashing back down to earth after his winning firt starting performance of last week as the Cubs cruised past the Stros 8-3 in the clubs’ first game of a four game weekend series in Chitown.
Backe gave up seven runs and nine hits in three innings, which is more like he pitched when he was a reliever. Beltran did whack his fourth yak in four games and Bags nailed one, too. But the Stros left 12 men stranded, most of them while Mark Prior was pitching. Prior was primed to be beat today, but the Stros could not put together the big inning necessary to chase him.
Roy O and Kerry Wood renew their beanball rivalry in an another afternoon game tomorrow. The over-under on batters beaned tomorrow is 3.

JK whacked an eighth inning three run yak — his second tater of the game — as the Stros swept their season series from the utterly befuddled Phillies, 7-4 this afternoon at the Juice Box.
This looked like a game that the Stros were destined to lose as they lagged behind the entire game and could not put a big inning together against Phils’ starter Eric Milton. However, Pete Munro kept the Stros in the game, and then AAA relievers Gallo, Harville and Qualls did not allow the game to get out of hand before Kent’s fireworks in the eighth. Carlos Beltran and Morgan Ensberg also tagged solo bombs for the Stros, who crept two games over the .500 mark with the win.
So now it’s off to Wrigley for four games with the Cubbies over the weekend followed by a trip to Cincy for batting practice with the Reds early next week. With their playoff hopes toasted to a crisp, the Stros appear to be playing as loose as a goose and could give the contenders some well-deserved headaches down the stretch.

The Stros continued their somewhat baffling dominance of the Phillies this season as they beat the Phils for the fifth straight time 4-2 on Tuesday night at the Juice Box.
Carlos Hernandez gave his most encouraging performance since returning from shoulder surgery, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks in seven innings. Roy O made a rare relief performance in pitching a perfect eighth after his abbreviated appearance in Sunday’s beanball fest with the Cubs and got unexpectedly got his 14th win when the Stros rallied in the eighth to break a 2-2 tie. Lidge nailed down his 16th save with a scoreless ninth.
Phils’ starter Brett Myers pretty well stymied the Stros over the first seven innings, giving up only two runs on two hits (one of which was Beltran‘s solo yak), but ex-Stro closer Todd Jones came through for the Stros in the eighth by giving up two runs on Lance Berkman and Mike Lamb‘s consecutive two-out singles.
By the way, I used the Stros’ new service yesterday that allows season ticket holders to email their tickets to someone else to use. All you have to do is call the Stros’ ticket services at (800-278-7672) and obtain your account’s PIN number to gain access to the service, I emailed mine to an old friend, and the service worked without a hitch. The service cannot yet email parking passes or club level passes, which do not have the bar code that allows the tickets to be easily recreated.
Based on recent history, the Stros’ chances of sustaining success plummet in today’s afternoon Businessman’s Special as Pete Munro (2-5) takes the hill against the Phils’ Eric Milton, who has a 13-2 record this season. In one of those statistical anamolies that helps make baseball fascinating, Munro (4.79) and Milton (4.71) have about the same ERA this season. The anamoly is best explained by the probability that Munro’s ERA would be much higher if he had pitched the 90 more innings that Milton has pitched this season.

The Rocket lasted long enough for his first win in almost a month — the 323rd victory of his career — and Carlos Beltran belted a three-run yak to lead the Stros over the Phillies 8-4 Monday night at the Juice Box.
After leaving in the fourth inning of his start against the Phils last week when he injured his right calf, Clemens hobbled around on the injured leg throughout much of his incredible seven-inning outing. Clemens (13-4) allowed only two runs and five hits with eight K’s and two walks in his first win in five starts since July 28.
Beltran connected in the seventh to become the 45th player in major league history with 30 home runs and 30 steals in a season. Bidg went 3-for-4 with two doubles as the Stros won their fourth straight over the Phils.
Carlos Hernandez tries to get untracked in tonight’s game against the Phils’ Brett Myers.