Led by Jeff Kent (3x5, 6 RBI, 1 RS), the entire Astros offense rose up Monday night and smashed Los Angeles Dodger pitching for ten runs and eighteen hits in a satisfying 10-1 road-trip opening win. Kent capped the evening with a ninth-inning grand slam, part of a diversified attack that also featured a homer by Brad Ausmus and a couple of doubles among three hits for Craig Biggio, and three hits for Geoff Blum. Wade Miller (12-11) went 6.2 innings for the win, pitching his way out of two brief wild spells in helping to hurl the Astros (72-65) back into a tie for first place in the NL Central after the Cardinals lost to the Cubs on this Labor Day evening.

It was Kent, you recall, whom I pointed to Sunday evening as the owner of the key bat that I wanted to see awaken on this road trip. Against a Hideo Nomo who was anything but sharp, Kent made me look like a prophet, driving in Biggio, who had doubled to LCF, with a double to LF of his own for a 1-0 Astros first-inning lead. Biggio doubled again in the third, also to LCF, and he came home later in the inning when Bagwell's foul fly for an out proved exceptionally difficult for the Dodgers, especially catcher Paul LoDuca to handle. LoDuca's error allowed Geoff Blum to reach 3B, and he scored when Kent stroked his second hit of the game to RF. An Ausmus homer, his fourth of the season, to LCF in the fourth inning, gave Houston another run, but though the hits kept coming, the Astros didn't break the game open until the late innings. In the seventh, Everett beat out an infield hit to 3B, was sacrificed up by Wade Miller, and scored on a Blum single to RCF. In the eighth, Richard Hidalgo doubled and scored on an Ausmus single to CF. In the ninth, an infield hit to SS by Biggio, a single to RF by Blum, and a walk to Bagwell, loaded the bases for Kent who, having flirted with a homer earlier in the game, didn't miss his chance for the biggest big fly of them all right here, taking a Rodney Myers pitch out of the park to LF for a 10-1 lead.

The most significant aspect of the Houston offense tonight was how much of it came with two outs. Kent's first-inning RBI came with two outs; his third-inning hit driving in Blum came with two out; Blum's RBI single in the seventh against Andy Ashby was a two-out hit; Hidalgo's eighth-inning double and Ausmus's RBI single against Steve Colyer came with two outs. Those hits alone would have been enough for Miller, who labored in the first by walking two men, gave up a hit in the second, a hit in the fourth, a hit and a walk in the fifth, and surrendered a homer to Alex Cora and a walk in the seventh before being relieved by Octavio Dotel. Dotel allowed a hit, struck out two, and walked one in 1.1 innings, and Rick White finished up, striking out one in the ninth, to give the Astros a game total of five strikeouts.

There's a long, long way to go on this road trip, and the Astros can't afford to concede a single game on it, not even to Houston nemesis Kevin Brown, who looms in the series finale on Wednesday, but we can say that Monday's game was just about the best way one could imagine a trip away from home like this might begin. Houston was focused at the plate in a remarkable way all game long, and the need will be to keep that focus over the next two games, as well. Although Kent was at center stage tonight, the supporting cast around him was also strong, and that's what it's going to take, game after game, for Houston to succeed (as in 7-3 or 8-2) on this road trip. Whether it's Berkman or Bagwell who steps up Tuesday night, when Tim Redding pitches, or Kent who once more spearheads the attack, the Astros will doubtless need the other big bats to chime in again. If that collective effort does occur, it will be both welcome and an unusual event. We've all seen too many games this season in which an offensive outburst like Monday's is followed by a poor showing the next night. Houston can no longer afford severe fluctuations from game to game. The Astros' task--against every pitcher they face--is to hit, and hit, and hit some more. There's no margin in the standings any longer to endure games in which the offense is shut down, no space within the schedule wherein a series might be comfortably lost. Houston's best hope is that the Cubs and Cardinals take turns knocking each other off in the Midwest, but in order to take advantage of that happy possibility, the Astros must win, and win, and win again during this final month of the season.

Don't ask me how many wins it'll take, either; I do not know. Besides, doing that kind of arithmetic on the bench will get a team in trouble faster than going after a Kevin Brown sinker. All I do know is that the Astros have 25 games left, and the team is permitted under the rules to win as many of those games as they can carry home. If there were ever a time for the offense to get greedy, for the Astros to show disdain for circumstance and comtempt for their opponents between the lines, that time is now.