Oswalt picks up himself, Astros
HOUSTON – Roy Oswalt fell while delivering a two-strike pitch to Marcus Giles to open the third inning. He laughed off the slip-up, then didn’t stumble much the rest of his outing.
Oswalt, who earned the victory in a winner-take-all game against the Braves last October, this time pitched the Astros to within a game of advancing to the National League Championship Series.
Behind 7 1/3 solid innings from Houston’s third ace, the Astros beat the Braves 7-3 on Saturday night at in front of a record crowd of 43,759 at Minute Maid Park to take a 2-1 division series lead. Game 4 will be here this afternoon.
“I was thinking, ‘That’s only me that can fall off the mound in the playoffs,’ ” Oswalt said.
Said Braves catcher Brian McCann: “From the third inning through the seventh inning, he was pretty much lights out.
“He pounded the strike zone with all four pitches.”
Mike Lamb, who did not appear in the first two games of the series as manager Phil Garner opted for Orlando Palmeiro at first base, sent a third-inning offering from Jorge Sosa into the right-field stands for the go-ahead run and the Astros nursed that 3-2 lead into the seventh. Four Braves relievers surrendered four runs that inning as the game got out of hand. Neither Chris Reitsma, John Foster nor Joey Devine recorded an out as the first six Astros reached base in the seventh.
After Lamb’s third-inning home run, Oswalt came out firing. He opened the fourth by striking out Jeff Francoeur on a 74 mph, diving curveball, then fanned Ryan Langerhans on a slider. In all, Oswalt – a 20-game winner each of the past two seasons – retired eight straight Braves from that point, six via strikeout.
“You saw a different Roy,” Garner said. “He got aggressive. He threw his fastball. He went right after them.”
The lone damage against Oswalt came in the second, when Adam LaRoche and Langerhans walked and came around to score on base hits to knot the game at 2. The two-out RBI came from unlikely sources. McCann, whose three-run homer against Roger Clemens in Game 2 lifted the Braves to a series-tying victory, started over Johnny Estrada behind the plate and delivered a run-scoring bloop single to left. Sosa followed with a full-count RBI single to left, after Oswalt fell behind in the count, then grooved a pitch. Estrada’s back has been cranky during the season’s second half.
For the Astros, Craig Biggio had three doubles and scored twice. He has six hits and has scored five runs in the series.
“As he goes, we go,” Garner said.
Sosa departed after six innings trailing 3-2, and the Braves’ bullpen unraveled.
Facing elimination, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox will turn to Game 1 starter Tim Hudson on short rest against Brandon Backe this afternoon.