Although it may not be surprising that the San Diego Padres won their tenth game in thirteen appearances at the new downtown park in Houston with a 7-1 win Friday night, what was surprising was the ease with which they obtained that victory. The Astros did very little to acquit themselves well in any phase of the game. They didn't pitch well, as Jeriome Robertson (12-7) was slapped around for 4.2 innings and was driven from the game when San Diego put the game away with a four-run fifth; they didn't hit well, with only a Jeff Bagwell first-inning homer to show for six paltry hits; and they didn't field well, committing two physical errors and several other, more minor, mental mistakes. Over and above all these statistical realities, there floated in the air of the ballpark tonight a sense of lightness about it all, as if the Astros were simply going through the mechanical acts of taking their swings and going back to the dugout and quietly removing their batting helmets before putting on their gloves, going out into the field, and getting the stuffing kicked out of them by a Padres team that knew exactly what it was doing. The loss, suffered with a shrug of the shoulders and no expression whatsoever on Astro faces, leaves Houston (70-64) still tied for first place with St. Louis, but ahead of Chicago by only a half-game.

It is true that the Astros were without Jeff Kent in the cleanup spot tonight. Kent was once again absent, attending the birth of his third child, a necessary and completely-understandable absence, even in a pennant race, but even so, Houston should have been able to do some damage against Adam Eaton. The reason they didn't is the middle of the order didn't show up. Bagwell had two hits, but Berkman was 0x2, Hidalgo 1x4, and Geoff Blum 0x2. Both Blum and Hidalgo left runners on in the game when a hit--any kind of hit--would have made a big difference.

There are certain Padres who always hit well against the Astros: Ryan Klesko, Mark Kotsay, Phil Nevin. You can now add to that list Mark Loretta, who matched Kotsay's total of three hits, one of which was a first-inning homer, and Brian Giles, just over from the Pirates to torment the Astros some more with a hit and a run scored. San Diego jumped on Robertson hard in the first inning with solo homers to LF and RF by Loretta and Nevin, a 2-0 lead which Bagwell promptly sliced in half with a moon-shot homer of his own to LF in the bottom half of the first inning. The Bagwell homer, his 31st of the season, was a pleasure to watch, and it was the kind of homer that refutes, as well as anything could, the idea that Bagwell is not "clutch." Yes, he fails any number of times to get a big hit with runners in scoring position, but all the great hitters do that, and they do it frequently. Yet here was a man already placed in a big spot--his team immediately down by two runs, needing a big hit, and Bagwell delivered. Though the hit represented only one run, it would be a meaningful hit as long as Jeriome Robertson could hold the game where it was.

But therein lies the problem. Robertson couldn't hold the score right there. Pitching behind in the count with maddening frequency, the Padres just took his pitches wherever they led, braking through against him in the fifth with a seemingly-endless barrage of two-out hits. Ryan Klesko, working ahead in the count after it looked like Robertson was going to put him away, rolled an RBI single to RF that I knew, I just knew, he was going to get. Mark Kotsay also had an RBI double in that miserable frame. By the time it was over, the Padres had pushed out to a 6-1 lead, and the Astros played the rest of the game like they were walking around in a daze. Adam Eaton was sharp, but the Astros weren't nearly aggressive enough on first-pitch strikes, of which there were many. Eaton struck out only four, but unlike Robertson, he was perpetually ahead in the count, and the Astros invariably went after his second pitch rather than his first. It would have been helpful if the bat control experts at the bottom of the order--Blum, Chavez, Everett--could have done something significant, but Eaton held them in check, too. Mike Matthews and Scott Linebrink finished the game for the Padres on the hill, while Rick White, Mike Gallo, and Billy Wagner checked in after Robertson.

Nothing went right for Houston in the field, either, Friday night, particularly at 3B. Geoff Blum flat-out dropped a throw from the outfield, thereby losing a chance to nail a runner, and, later, his double-switch replacement, Morgan Ensberg, lost a ball in the lights after it kicked up off the pitcher and went right by him.

All that can be done to correct tonight's follies is to hope that Houston will go out tomorrow night and just play its normal game. San Diego is not doing anything out of the ordinary in beating the Astros so often. The club is just taking the ball where its pitched and approaching each at-bat in a positive frame of mind. The Padres like the way the Houston ballpark is laid out, and they are comfortable just whacking the ball down the lines. The Astros could take a lesson or two from their approach and just try to go after the same kind of hits on Saturday night in support of Jared Fernandez. Fernandez, for his part, needs to give the Astros a good six innings tomorrow regardless of how the offense does. His knuckleball is not the most reliable pitch to lean on in a pennant chase, but there's little choice but to use him and hope he can come through. Jeff Kent may be back in the lineup tomorrow as well, to boost the offense and to correct the club's attitude. We'll see what difference, if any, he makes.

In the spirit of correction, let me amend something I wrote in error late last night. It was, of course, Billy Wagner who gave up the homer to Jason Giambi in the All-Star Game and Eric Gagne who gave up the game-winning blast to Hank Blalock later. I well knew these facts from back in July but transposed the names in my sentence anyway. I am grateful for the e-mail I received calling attention to the error.