The ongoing series with the Cubs has a fascinating psychological undercurrent. Two days ago, Jeff Kent spoke out against his teammates tipping their caps to Chicago's pitching staff and then Tuesday night drove in six runs in demonstrating such homage wasn't necessary. On Wednesday night, Mark Prior made the Astros tip those caps with a splendid, near-no-hit effort, sharing a four-hit shutout of Houston with Kyle Farnsworth and Joe Borowski, 6-0. Chicago leapfrogged over St. Louis into second place in the NL Central with the win, and now stands just a half-game out of first, with the Cardinals remaining a game back. Houston (66-60), it must be said, does still lead the division, but we all knew Chicago had three excellent shots to fire this week. The first missed last night; the second one, tonight, was dead center.

When one considers Prior's 11-5 record coming into Wednesday night's game, it's not surprising at all that he won. What is surprising is how he did it. Rather than go with that exceptional curve ball of his--as I said he would at the end of Tuesday's column--Prior went right after the Astros with a great fastball; great, I mean, even for Prior. He struck out the first five men he faced, and within that long sequence there were not only no hits, there were'nt even many foul balls. Prior dropped in his trademark curve every once in a while, just to remind Houston it was there, but his performance tonight was grounded in what Matt Clement never had on Tuesday--command of the fastball on both sides of the plate. Prior struck out nine over seven innings, walked only one, and still looked strong after 100 pitches. Aside from a bases loaded threat in the seventh inning, when Jeff Bagwell, Richard Hidalgo, and Brad Ausmus all singled to LF, only to see Adam Everett fly out to RF, the Astros never came close to touching him. The only other hit was an Everett double to LF in the sixth that broke up the no-hit bid. In all respects, this was the kind of game Astros' fans have seen pitched against the club in the playoffs too many times before, the kind of game we pray we may never see again. Prior didn't embarrass the Astros at all; they just couldn't hit him. Although there were perhaps five or six pitches that were hittable but taken right down the middle for strikes, the majority of the time Prior was at 95 m.p.h. right on the corners and there was no way anyone could knock him off those corners. His ball had good sinking action down low, and there were even times when he simply busted it by Berkman and Kent upstairs.

Jared Fernandez (1-3) did his best to keep the Astros in the game, but by the time Prior escaped the bases-loaded situation in the seventh, Houston was already down 6-0, courtesy mostly of a two-run homer to LCF in the fourth by Aramis Ramirez and a long three-run homer to RF by Randall Simon in the sixth off Ricky Stone, who had entered earlier in that inning to relieve Fernandez after Fernandez had given up two hits and a wild pitch that scored Tony Womack. I've been thinking about Rob Neyer's recent ESPN column criticizing the Cubs for their acquisitions of Ramirez, Tony Womack, and Simon. While in the broadest sense, Neyer's statistical analysis does indicate that Chicago's recent trades don't add up to much, you can't prove it by Houston. In fact, the "Houston" dimension, if you will, is one angle that Neyer seems to have overlooked. While I can't go out out of my way to say that the Astros were all the Cubs were thinking about when they made their trades (they weren't), the fact remains that Ramirez, Lofton, Womack, and Simon have all killed the Astros, either this season or in their careers or both. If you add to that data the fact that the Cubs had a high number of games remaining with the Astros before most of the trades were made, I would suggest that that there was more sense behind Jim Hendry's moves than Neyer gives him credit for. Clubs have been known to make deals to match up better against certain clubs; it's been known to happen, and a little of it happened here, although it should also be said that Ramirez was not Chicago's first choice as a 3B, and Simon not a snap choice over at 1B. Chicago might have lineup matchup problems against pitching out of the East or the West if they make it to the NLDS, but for a combination of speed and power the Astros have had a wicked time handling, you can't argue with with the Cubs have done to fortify themselves against a team they must beat to even get to the playoffs.

The pitching matchup Wednesday--Prior versus Fernandez--was a mismatch in many people's eyes before the game was even played. Thursday's game, Kerry Wood versus Ron Villone, looks more even. The Astros have stayed in there pretty well against Wood ever since his rookie year of 1998, and the Cubs just might have pushed their luck some in bumping Shawn Estes, who's pitched darn well against the Astros this season, to give Wood a shot. If Wood is on his game--really on it--then Chicago will win, "of course," one might say. But it's hard to imagine Wood being as sharp on the corners as Prior was Wednesday. Houston should be able to handle his fastball. The pitch they have to watch out for is, again, the curve ball. It's not as great as it was five years ago, but if--just to mention the worst-case scenario--Wood has as much control over it as Prior did over the fastball, then we could see two playoff game-type losses in a row after Thursday's rubber match.