Baseball
NL: Houston gains breathing room
By Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 22, 2003
HOUSTON - Kerry Wood thought he had his good stuff. It didn't matter to the Astros.
One night after Houston managed four hits, Craig Biggio hit a two-run homer and the Astros beat Wood for the third time this season with a 9-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night.
The Central-leading Astros took two of three in a key series against the Cubs, who dropped 11/2 out of first. Houston finished with 16 hits, one short of its season high.
Wood lost for the fourth time in five decisions. He lasted four innings and left trailing 5-0.
"I had as good stuff as I have all year," Wood said. "It was like they knew what was coming. I still went out and made the pitches and my velocity was pretty good."
Ron Villone pitched five solid innings and benefited from Houston's early offense.
"It wasn't a huge series, there is so much baseball left," Astros catcher Brad Ausmus said. "It wasn't an overwhelming amount of pressure but it was the last chance, the last chance we have, to go against the Cubs. It's nice to beat a team you know is going to be there at the end."
Wood allowed six hits, walked two and struck out five, boosting his major league-leading strikeout total to 208. He has reached 200 strikeouts four times in his five seasons.
"I just got beat tonight," Wood said. "I felt pretty good with the stuff I had today but they hit it. Even on the Biggio home run, it was a good pitch, a slider down and away. We should beat this team. I had a chance to get it done and didn't give the team that chance to win."
The Cubs, who had 12 hits in Wednesday's 6-0 victory, managed seven in the final game of the season series.
"There is no logical reason for us hitting him well," Ausmus said. "He certainly has dominated us in the past."
The Astros jumped on Wood quickly. Geoff Blum singled and Richard Hidalgo doubled to open the second inning. A sacrifice fly by Ausmus and a wild pitch by Wood gave the Astros a 2-0 lead.
CARDINALS 6, PIRATES 3: Jim Edmonds hit his second homer of the game, a three-run shot in the ninth that lifted host St. Louis.
Edmonds won it with his 32nd home run with one out. He got a break two pitches earlier when third baseman Jose Hernandez muffed his foul pop near the stands, though no error was charged.
Miguel Cairo homered and Scott Rolen was 2-for-4 with a run-scoring double as the Cardinals took two of three. St. Louis won three of four at Pittsburgh last week.
The Pirates tied it in the eighth on a two-out, two-run triple by Abraham Nunez off Jason Simontacchi. Nunez fouled off several pitches before his drive to the gap in right-center.
BREWERS 5, PHILLIES 2: Keith Ginter hit a go-ahead homer off Vincente Padilla in the sixth as Milwaukee completed a three-game sweep.
After a five-game winning streak, including a three-game sweep of St. Louis last weekend, Philadelphia is 0-3 on a season-high 13-game, four-city road trip. The Phillies have lost 11 of their past 13 on the road.
Philadelphia remained a half-game ahead of Florida in the wild-card race.
ROCKIES 5, MARLINS 4: Todd Helton led off the ninth with a home run off Braden Looper, giving host Colorado a three-game sweep.
Florida rallied for two in the eighth and tied it in the ninth on Alex Gonzalez's homer before Helton hit the fourth game-ending homer of his career.
Preston Wilson and Chris Stynes also connected for Colorado, and Jose Jimenez pitched six impressive innings in his first start since 1999.
DODGERS 2, EXPOS 1: Cesar Izturis hit two run-scoring doubles and Odalis Perez won his fourth straight start for host Los Angeles.
Vladimir Guerrero hit his 226th home run to pass Andre Dawson as Montreal's career leader. Guerrero's third-inning drive, his 17th this season, landed halfway up the leftfield pavilion, an estimated 454 feet from home plate.
D'BACKS 9, REDS 3: Junior Spivey homered for the second time in three games and Luis Gonzalez drove in two for host Arizona.
METS 5, PADRES 1: Ty Wigginton hit a three-run homer and Roger Cedeno added a two-run shot as visiting New York avoided a three-game sweep.
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