The Astros (63-54) ripped into Montreal starting pitcher Scott Downs in the first inning Sunday for three runs, struck again for two runs in the third, and exploded a final time for three runs more in the eighth in an 8-2 romp over the Expos. Houston smashed four homers in the game--blasts by Richard Hidalgo, Brad Ausmus, Jeff Kent, and Lance Berkman--in support of a solid 6.1 inning, two run and four-hit effort from Ron Villone (4-2), who wasn't touched until back-to-back homers by Orlando Cabrera and Wil Cordero sliced into the substantial lead that the Astros had built up. The victory sqaured the Astros' homestand at 3-3, put maximum pressure on the Cubs and Cardinals to win their own games later this afternoon and evening, and propelled the ballclub with considerable force toward an all-important four-game series with the Cubs starting Monday night at Wrigley Field.

When Downs could manage to get his curve ball over, it was quite an impressive pitch. He absolutely locked up Richard Hidalgo on one that dropped into the zone from the height of Mt. Everest in the opening frame. Trouble was, curves like that came along only about every fifth pitch for him. The rest of the time, the Astros raked him. Craig Biggio started things with hard line-drive single up the middle. Morgan Ensberg cracked a double to deep LF and Jeff Bagwell drove them both home woth another double to LF. Jeff Kent gave himself up on a 3-1 pitch, grounding to 2B and getting Bagwell over to 3B, when perhaps he should have been looking for a pitch to drive. His grounder and the strikeout of Hidalgo afterwards gave Downs a chance to wiggle off the hook with only two runs given up in the inning, but his control just wasn't good enough. He walked Lance Berkman intentionally to get to the bottom third of the Houston order, yet Downs spoiled his own tactic by walking Brad Ausmus to load the bases. While pitching to Adam Everett, Downs slipped off the mound before delivering the ball. A balk was called, and Bagwell trotted home with run number three. After that, Everett was himself intentionally walked and Downs finally ended the inning by striking out Villone.

Once on the hill himself, Villone had a fine afternoon. He was high with two or three pitches in the first inning, but quickly adjusted within the next pitch or two to avoid extensive control trouble. He allowed only two early hits--a two-out single to RF in the first by Jose Vidro and a one-out single to RF by Vladimir Guerrero in the fourth and struck out five while walking one. Houston extended its lead for him in the third when Hidalgo took him deep to LF for homer number twenty on the season and Downs learned that when you throw a medium fastball belt-high even Brad Ausmus can hit it out. Ausmus's third homer of the season--his first in over 300 at-bats--made the score 5-0 and provided the impetus for T.J. Tucker to come in, pitch the middle ininngs and quiet the Astro bats. The Cabrera and Cordero homers off Villone in the seventh with one out gave Montreal some slim hope of a comeback, but Brad Lidge had some wicked stuff in the seventh and quickly smothered any chance of an extended rally. He struck out pinch-hitter Ron Calloway looking on a slider and got catcher Edwards Guzman to chase a little bit to end the inning.

'Tis true, as Bill Worrell said, Montreal closer Rocky Biddle was just given some work in the eighth, but it is also true that the substance of that work was to keep the Expos within range. That's a part of the message I think Biddle forgot. The Astros belted him around big-time, putting the game away with three runs. Jeff Kent, who had looked positively silly trying to catch up to Biddle's fastball, suddenly got a lower, slower pitch that left me wondering three things: why in the world would Biddle come back with a pitch that low, that slow, and how in the world did Kent hit it? He golfed it to LF for homer number fifteen on the season and a 6-2 Houston lead. One out later, Berkman drove a high one to RF. Guerrero drifted back on the ball as far he could, leaped up, but the ball, well-struck, was beyond him. The Astros, up 7-2, weren't done. Ausmus doubled to LF and Adam Everett found the LCF gap with an RBI triple. RP Roy Corcoran came in to save Biddle more abuse, and the Astros were saved, as it were, from having to bring Billy Wagner into the game in the bottom of the ninth. Wagner needn't fret, however; he could be much in demand over the next four nights and days. Dan Miceli pitched the ninth, surrendering only Montreal's final hit of the game, a single to LF by Guerrero. Even on that hit, however, the Astros were not inclined to yield much. Berkman played the ball beautifully and was deadly accurate with his low throw to Kent at the 2B bag, beating Guerrero on the play by a good second.

Let us hope that the Astros are similarly not inclined to yield much to the Cubs Monday through Thursday. One would think that today's offensive outburst--four homers, a triple, and three doubles among nine hits--would put the Astros in a good frame of mind headed up to Chicago, but I'm not certain of that. Ausmus did not sound overconfident when he spoke in today's postgame TV interview of the probable necessity to scrap for runs in the games to come. And to be both honest and fair to Ausmus, he has good reason to be cautious. The Cubs will be throwing everyone but Mark Prior at Houston in this series, and the Astros will not see fat pitches from a man just up from the minors. This is going to be playoff baseball Monday through Thursday, and that means pitches on the corners and breaking pitches in fastball counts. The Astros will see the Chicago staff make four efforts to throw at them the kind of game that Livan Hernandez threw against Houston Saturday night, and if the Cubs are successful, it will be very difficult for the Astros even to get a split. Houston must somehow do what it is not very adept at doing: force Chicago off the corners by going the other way with pitches, and hope that the Cubs will, as a result, make a few mistakes over the plate that can be belted onto Waveland Avenue. Houston's pitchers, I am sure, will make a few of those kinds of mistakes against a lineup that will be gunning for them, but we have to hope that Sunday's game will empower the Astros' lineup to go on a tear of its own. Everyone knows that holding down Sosa and Alou will be important for Houston's pitching and defense, but another bat the Astros must control is that of Aramis Ramirez. However the series turns out, we should at least see Craig Biggio pass another hitting milestone at Wrigley. He needs just a couple of hits to pass Mickey Mantle on the all-time hit list and, as Astros Daily reader Paul Matten pointed out to me this morning by e-mail, Biggio has already just passed Babe Ruth on the all-time doubles list with 507 of them.

Imagine that, would you? An Astro, one our own, whose name now belongs--and deservedly so--up next to the names of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. There is nothing finer--no, only one thing finer--than this level of accomplishment for a professional baseball player, and that is a World Series championship. The series that begins tomorrow night will constitute four of the biggest steps the Astros will take this season toward that ultimate prize.