Jeff Kent spearheaded an aroused Astro attack Tuesday night, going 3x5 with a homer and six RBI, as Houston (66-59) ripped into Chicago Cubs pitching for fifteen hits in a homestand-opening 12-8 win. Although the final score would suggest a slugfest, the game was not that close by the end, thanks not only to Houston's torrid hitting in the first two-thirds of the game but also some solid middle relief work from Dan Miceli (1-2) and Rick White. The victory helped the Astros maintain a one-game lead in the NL Central and pushes the Cubs to 1.5 games back.

This race is so close--and because of the relative weaknesses of the clubs is likely to stay close--that the most critical games in it will be played in September. Yet, if the Astros emerge as division champs, we may look back on the first inning tonight as a turning point of the season. My heart sank to its lowest depth of the year when Aramis Ramirez made Jeriome Robertson pay for the crimes of hitting Kenny Lofton to open the game, surrendering a single to the one-trick pony Alex Gonzalez, and intentionally passing Moises Alou. There's no way on God's green earth any pitcher is going to push Lofton off the plate throwing the lollipop inside that Robertson gave him; there's only one trick .the 232-hitting Gonzalez knows, and that's how to mangle Astros' pitching; and there's only one fact in all of contemporary baseball that would mitigate against giving Alou a free ride, and that's how Aramis Ramirez hits Astros pitching in Houston. Ramirez crushed a fat Robertson offering way out to LF, and the Cubs were on top, 3-0. I felt like turning off the TV set right then, and I'll bet a lot of other Houston fans felt the same way. But I stuck it out, not only because I have a lifetime's worth of love and loyalty to a particular team and a certain sense of pride and obligation toward my nightly task, but also because I was simply curious to see how the Astros would react--not to Jeff Kent's challenging words in the morning paper, of which I was unaware (I read the local Houston press less than you might think, so that my own work won't be unduly influenced by it)--but to the immediate fact of the Cubs' three-run outburst.

Using a lineup shuffled in two key spots--Lance Berkman up in # 2 and Geoff Blum down in # 6--the Astros lit into a Matt Clement who never did find full command of his fastball, and thus couldn't always use his slider as an out pitch. Berkman, seeing more hittable pitches tonight than he has in over a week because he was batting in front of, rather than behind, the hot Jeff Bagwell, beat out an infield hit to 3B, taking advantage of the slow reactions of Aramis Ramirez at 3B. Bagwell muscled a hit to LCF, a ball I thought at first might be caught, and Kent slapped a hard groundball base hit to LF for the first run of the night. During Richard Hidalgo's at-bat, Clement unleashed a hard wild pitch that bounced quickly back to catcher Damian Miller. Bagwell, on 3B, either read the pitch with the prescience of the amazing Kreskin or made up his mind before the game ever started to let everything hang out all night long. He took a tremendous gamble and won, beating Miller's throw back to Clement at the plate by an eyelash, sliding under a high tag from Chicago's pitcher and cutting the lead to 3-2. Hidalgo went on to walk, showing (depending on you looked at it) either immense patience or mind-blowing dumbness at letting at least two hittable pitches go by, then Geoff Blum absolutely wiped out a Clement fastball to RCF for the key hit of the inning. I thought the ball was out; it carried and carried, surely to the stands, I thought. But no, it only struck the fence, and stayed in play. The rip was good for two runs, though, and Houston not only had a one-run lead, it also had the kind of multi-hit, multi-run inning that was the focus of so much discussion three days ago.

Robertson, however, could not hold the lead. For the second time in a month, he had no snap, no location against Chicago, and the Cubs quickly broke back on top. Moises Alou blasted a Robertson fastball out to LF with Kenny Lofton aboard in the third for a 5-4 Chicago advantage. It was, if I may say so, an absurd pitch to make in such a big game. Bill Worrell made the comment at the time that Alou is the best fastball hitter he ever saw. Fair enough. Don't know if I'd rank Alou that high; Henry Aaron did all right against that pitch, and Barry Bonds has had modest success with it, but the rule for Alou is the same as it is for Biggio: don't throw the man the fastball, not if you have a curve, a change, a slider, or anything else off-speed to offer.

Although they were down once again, the Astros had already served sufficient notice that they were not going to buckle under any kind of a knockout punch in this one. They tied it quickly in the third on a Blum double to LCF and a single to CF by Zaun. Then, in the fourth, Kent got Dan Miceli some runs. Berkman and Bagwell walked, then Kent hit a booming home run over everything in LF for three runs and an 8-5 lead. There are times when I wish the ESPN guys could see a home run like that one in the flesh. Then they'd know what most of us have known for four years: that not every homer to LF in Houston's new park is a cheap one. Most of them, in fact, are of major-league quality, just like Kent's. The soaring shot was Kent's eighteenth of the season, and it produced a particular kind of happiness. A lot of guys talk about stepping up, getting the big hit, or making the big plays, but Kent not only has the ability to do it; he does it. He hasn't done it as often as I would have liked to see to this point in the season, but he has done it numerous times this season, stretching all the way back to April against the Cardinals, and if Kent is well and truly intent on leading this club from this point forward, then there will surely be other big moments he will be called up to provide before September is over and the race is decided. Tonight, he was geared up, and his teammates were, also.

Rick White relieved Dan Miceli in the sixth. Between the two of them, they held Chicago to only two hits over three crucial middle innings of the ballgame, and the Astros erupted again in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away. Houston had five doubles in the game; three of them came in this inning. Berkman led off with a double and moved to 3B on a Dave Veres wild pitch. Bagwell walked, and Kent doubled to LCF, scoring both of them. Hidalgo ripped a double to LF against a Kyle Farnsworth who wasn't quite ready to pitch yet, scoring Kent. Gregg Zaun singled to RF and Adam Everett plated Hidalgo with a base hit to CF. There were opportunities to get even more runs, but pinch-hitter Orlando Merced grounded out and Craig Biggio, who went 0x5 and saw his BA drop to .254, struck out on a breaking pitch in the dirt.

Biggio's lack of offense was one concern tonight amid the merriment; another was Brad Lidge, who didn't look sharp while giving up three runs and three hits in the seventh, including a two-run homer to LF by Alex Gonzalez. It still passes all my understanding why the Astros can't get this man out. He really is hitting only .232. Throwing him an occasional breaking ball down around the knees might help, for heaven's sake. Octavio Dotel had a sharp eighth, and Billy Wagner was brought on--justifiably, I thought--to pitch the ninth and nail down an essential win.

As sweet as the victory is, however, it's only the most modest of beginnings for the last six weeks of the season. With Mark Prior and Kerry Wood scheduled for the next two games, the Astros are going to see a lot of what they didn't see Tuesday--breaking stuff. It takes concentration to hit those kinds of pitches, too. Let's see if Houston can lock in on a Prior curve or a Wood curve relatively as well as they did Clement's straying fastball tonight. I have my doubts whether they can, given the general approach the Astros have displayed in the past, but even if I didn't have those doubts, it's only natural ro expect a downturn in the offense Wednesday. Even if that downturn comes, what sharp-eyed Astros fans are really looking for from now on, beyond the results of each game, is a consistent level of focus, of attentiveness at the plate, such as we saw tonight. If the Astros can maintain it, the odds will swing in their favor. If they can't, then their hold on first place--still tenuous--will begin to slip away once the pressures of the tough September schedule begin to mount.