Less than twenty-four hours after being battered by "The Perfect Storm" (see the Astroday archives), Houston endured yet another hard-to-swallow loss when Adam Dunn cracked a two-run homer in the bottom of the tenth Friday night off Brad Lidge (4-3) to propel the Cincinnati Reds to a 9-7 triumph that knocked the Astros (64-58) out of first place in the NL Central. The homer, coming moments after a controversial balk call by the insufferably arrogant Bruce Froemming on Lidge moved the winning run into scoring position, provided the Reds with yet another in a seemingly endless list of walk-off home runs this year--the only things Reds fans have had to cheer about during a dismal season. The fact that the Houston offense re-awakened against poor Cincinnati pitching with three homers and eleven hits is of no consolation in the face of a total meltdown by the Astros' bullpen after two of the leaders of the ballclub, Jeff Kent and Craig Biggio, had stepped up and provided some actual leadership tonight.

It was Kent who stepped up first by belting a two-run homer to LF off Reds' starter Danny Graves in the opening inning, his sixteenth of the season, scoring Biggio, who had singled to CF, in front of him. The Reds tied it, however, just as quickly in the bottom half of the inning when Ray Olmedo walked and Jason LaRue parked a shot of his own, alao to LF.

You realize the significance of that homer of LaRue's don't you? Alex Gonzalez, the Cubs' SS, does nothing in the # 8 hole all season, gets shifted to the # 2 hole for the Houston series and kills the Astros. LaRue, buried at # 8 for much of the season, gets moved to # 2, and he kills the Astros.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you; a conspiracy.

After the LaRue homer, I figured Villone wouldn't last very long, but he fooled me, going 6.1 innings, and holding the Reds right where they were by the end of the first inning. He allowed only three hits, and he even provided himself with a late-game lead by homering to RF in the top of the seventh against Graves. Man, did he hit that ball! It reminded me of the blast Carlos Zambrano hit in Houston a few days ago, a real solid stroke, maybe eight or nine rows up in the seats. Morgan Ensberg and Jeff Bagwell followed with base hits, setting up a potentially big inning, but Kent grounded into a rally-crushing 5-4-3 double play. Later events would conceal the importance of that twin-killing for a time, but by the sudden, chair-kicking end of this contest, those two outs were restored to the prominence that they had at the time they were recorded. Yet, there was still reason to be happy. Villone was hanging in there, and he had taken it upon himself to give the Astros the lead. Maybe the homer was a lucky shot; or maybe Villone had the pitch measured all the way. Whatever the case might have been, with Villone still strong and the best part of the Houston bullpen at the ready, this game looked like it was going to end Houston's three-game losing streak.

It was with a great deal of surprise, then (surprise greater than with the Villone homer) that I regarded Jimy Williams's move to lift Villone in the bottom half of the seventh. He had given up a single to Ruben Mateo but he had also gotten one out. His total pitch count was 93--right where we'd expect it to be just at the conclusion of six innings of work--and Villone didn't appear to be laboring. I don't know what it was that motivated the switch to Octavio Dotel. Maybe Williams saw or sensed something with Villone that the TV cameras couldn't pick up. I certainly can't say I objected to Dotel's entrance based on the numbers, but I did think it was early and in a curious spot. Nor can I say that in questioning the move as mildly as I'm trying to that I am attempting to add drama to what happened afterward. I just found the timing of the move a bit odd. A situational pitcher like a Ricky Stone or a Mike Gallo is somewhat accustomed to the nerve-wracking task of dealing with both a batter and runners on base. Although Dotel has also entered into games in similar spots more times than I can count, he's much more of a begin-at-the-beginning, full-inning reliever.

In defense of what Williams did, he was by the broadest interpretation doing his level best to win the game. If I had to pick a guy to get two outs for me in a game when it wasn't the ninth inning, I'd go to Dotel in a heartbeat, over Brad Lidge and even over Billy Wagner. I'm just not certain that it was necessary to get these two outs with Dotel. Whatever Williams's reasoning, Dotel responded with one of his worst relief appearances of the season. (There may have been a worse one; I just can't think of it right now.) And it all happened after Dotel got Brandon Larson to fly out to RF. Reggie Taylor singled to CF, Dotel gave up a walk, and the stage was set for a string of two-out hits. Ray Olmedo doubled to LF for two runs; Jason LaRue singled to LF for two runs more, and D'Angelo Jimenez singled to RF for another run. The first of those runs was charged to Villone, but in all of this activity, the most disturbing thing was that Dotel didn't seem to have any command of any of his pitches. The five back-breaking runs were unnerving, both because they came against one of the most unhittable relievers in baseball and because they threatened to knock the Astros out of first place. At the time, many of us knew only that Chicago had won earlier Friday. St. Louis's fate in the evening was still uncertain as the Reds were scoring. (They lost.)

With their backs pressed up against the ropes about as tightly as possible, the Astros fought back in the eighth against two pitchers. Lance Berkman opened with a walk against John Riedling and, one out later, Brad Ausmus singled to RCF. Adam Everett followed with yet another single, and Geoff Blum, who had entered the game with Dotel in a double switch, lifted a sacrifice fly to CF to score Berkman. The Reds made a pitching change at this point, going with Chris Reitsma. With two runners on and Biggio up, all I was hoping for was a base hit; all I was meditating against was a strikeout. I never fully expected what Biggio gave us. I saw the homer to LF, but I confess I don't know what the pitch was. My first glance told me it was a fastball, but the pitch did have a little break to it as if it were a curve that didn't have enough bite. On balance, I'd still call it a fastball, one that Biggio drove out of the park to pull the Astros into a tie.

Having begged in various ways and at various times during the season for our guys to step up and be clutch, I should celebrate the Biggio homer more, because that's what it was--clutch--but I was still in shock from Dotel's inning, and late-game ties don't mean near as much to me as late-game leads (probably because I've never, in all my years of watching Houston baseball, been a big believer in the club's abilties in extra innings). Billy Wagner kept the game tied with some clutch work of his own in the bottom of the eighth, overcoming Jeff Kent's bobble of a routine grounder and a passed ball that put the runner, Wily Mo Pena for Sean Casey, at 2B. Adam Dunn struck out looking. After Ruben Mateo beat out a ball that, again, Kent couldn't handle cleanly, Juan Castro struck out swinging and Reggie Taylor fouled out to LF, courtesy of Lance Berkman's fearless catch near the wall.

From the ninth inning on, though, the Reds stopped the Astros cold. Reitsma pitched to the heart of the order in the tenth like the guys were swinging candy canes up there. Bagwell and Kent flied to LF, and Berkman deepened his road-trip slump with a swinging strikeout. Our Wagner kept pumping in the bottom of the ninth, notching two strikeouts around a foul pop to 2B, but their Wagner--Ryan by first name--was equally tough. The ex-Houston Cougar rookie polished off the bottom tier of the Astros' lineup, surrendering only a walk to Brad Ausmus. That left the knotted game in the hands of Brad Lidge.

The balk call made by Bruce Froemming after Jimenez singled to open up the bottom of the tenth may or may not have been legitimate. Lidge had, to most eyes, stepped off the rubber, and his motion after that did not constitute a pitch toward home plate or anything else. Although a call made by any umpire will usually stand in a game, what drives players and fans crazy about Froemming is the almost unbelievable snobbery and bullishness he displays on the field. He threw the Indians' Milton Bradley out of a game a few weeks ago for arguing balls and strikes saying only, "I've been around thirty-three years; he's been around one." Yep, and Froemming's been incompetent with the blessings of his union for each of those thirty-three years.We won't know unless Lidge tells us so whether the balk call affected the way he pitched to Dunn, and perhaps it didn't, in view of the strikeout he got on Pena, but I can well imagine that it was a distraction throughout the inning. If you're Lidge and you're coming off a game in which you've grooved one late to a .200 hitter hitting .400 against your club in Alex Gonzalez, it wouldn't take much to break your concentration, even if you had the self-discipline of a Zen Master. There was no doubt about the rip that Dunn got, a fellow who reminds me of a left-handed Dave Kingman more and more every time I see him. He's an easy out most of the time, but God help you if your fastball has no hop or your slider flattens out. Dunn will kill either one, and I think he got the fastball here.

Houston needs a lift in the most urgent way. The best the club can do now is a 3-4 road trip, and it would have to take the next two games against the Reds to come home with that mark. If the offense can work Saturday and Sunday afternoon the way it did Friday night, then those two wins are possible, if not probable, and the Astros' stay in second place just might be a short one. Friday's bullpen failure may or may not have been the first sign of the collapse down there that many of us have feared would happen in August and September; it's hard to tell. Dotel has been through the wars and he'll bounce back. Lidge is to be commended for holding up as long as he has, but he's still a rookie, and it's best to let a rookie give us a full season before making any judgments about what he's fully capable of under all conditions. The short-term impact of this loss may be slight, lasting only until noon on Saturday. The cost of this less-than-satisfactory road trip over the long term, however, is that now, even in the event of a fine homestand to come, Houston is unlikely to build up any lead in the Central over the next few days as we head into a tough September unless the Cubs and Cards fall into a long losing streak over the same stretch of games. In the case of the Cubs and their pitching, such a losing streak appears to be the last thing that we should expect to happen.