The Astro’s took game 4 to take the series against the San Francisco Giants in a 9th inning nail bitter that ended with a Lance Berkman homer into McCovey Cove. The win puts Houston on a 2 game winning streak and they have now won 11 of their last 13 games. Their record now stands at 24-18 and the victory puts them in 2nd place in the NL Central just 1.5 games back from the division leading Cubs.
The offense really carried the Astro’s to the 8-7 win because they collected 13 hits as a team, 5 of which were for extra bases. They also got back on the home run track getting 3 homers from 3 different players. Carlos Lee started it off by getting a solo-homer in the 8th inning making the score 7-4 in favor of the Giants. Darin Erstad came in to pinch hit for catcher J.R. Towles and had a great at-bat. He delivered his first career pinch hit homer and to be exact it was a 3-run jack tying the score at 7’s. Lance Berkman once again came up huge for his club hitting a game winning homer into McCovey Cove in the top of the 9th making the score 8-7. Berkman had a huge night going 2-for-4 including the homer with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. He now has his batting average up to .391 and his home run total is now at 15. Carlos Lee went 3-for-5 with 1 RBI and a run scored. His batting average has grown to .289 and his homer run total now stands at 9. Darin Erstad went 1-for-1, the hit being his 3 run jack, giving him 1 homer for the year and his batting average is now at .304.
Chris Sampson took the mound for Houston and had a very shaky night. He worked 6 innings giving up 10 hits, 7 runs, 5 earned, 3 Ks and his ERA now stands at 6.46. Tim Byrdak did get the win for the ball club because he was the last pitcher to throw before Berkman hit his game winning jack. Byrdak’s record is now 2-0 and his ERA still stands at 0.00. Jose Valverde came in to close out the game and did just that getting his 11th save of the season as he continues to drop his ERA which is now at 4.15.
Another solid win for the Astro’s as they continue to make their way towards 1st place in the NL Central. The Cubbies need to look out because Houston is one of the hottest teams in baseball right now and show no signs of cooling down.
