Fred McGriff homered twice and Eric Gagne's incredible streak of saves reached 47 for this season and 54 overall Tuesday night as Los Angeles evened the current series with the Astros with a 4-1 win, but from an Astro-oriented point of view, the game turned, not solely on what McGriff and Gagne did, but on what the Houston offense did not do in the innings before those two Dodgers did what they're paid to do. Once again, this evening, the hitting attack sputtered like a 1950's car in Cuba, as lefty Wilson Alvarez, Guillermo Mota, Paul Quantrill, Tom Martin, and Gagne disconnected the spark plugs that fired like blazes the night before and left Houston (72-66) to wonder--not for the first time this season--why in the world it can't put two decent games at the plate back-to-back.

The Astros broke out on top in the second inning after singles to LF and RF by Jeff Kent and Lance Berkman and a fielder's choice ground ball to 3B by Brad Ausmus, but it would have been hard to predict that that would be the only run the Astros would score against the changeup-throwing Alvarez. Houston had another decent chance to score in the top of the fourth when Ausmus walked and Adam Everett singled to RF with two out and both moved up on a passed ball, but Tim Redding flied out to CF.

Redding (8-14) set down the first nine men he faced, but with only a single run of support, it was merely a question of when the Dodgers would get to him. That happened in the bottom of the fourth. Dave Roberts--exactly the man one doesn't want to reach base in a 1-0 game--gained a spot at 1B on an error by Everett and scored with one out on a double to LCF by Shawn Green who, up to this point, the Astros had kept quiet. Everett made his second error of the inning, however, by throwing badly, allowing Green to reach 3B, from where Green scored after McGriff took Redding deep to RF the first time. Redding hung around just slightly longer than Alvarez did (5.2 innings to 5), and pitched a respectable game, but the errors by Everett and the mistake to McGriff put the Astros in a spot where they didn't wish to be: looking out toward the LA bullpen and a collection of relievers that's been more effective than Houston's this year.

Houston had one last shot before Alvarez, working on a pitch count, was lifted. In the fifth, Craig Biggio singled and Kent doubled him over to 3B, but note that the Kent hit came with two outs. I had conjectured last night that if Houston was to maintain its good hitting from the 10-1 rout, Kent was going to have to keep getting help from the supporting cast, or that whichever Astro was hot tonight, he was going to have to have help. Turns out that Kent was the "hero" Tuesday night, if you could call him that, but he didn't get much support from his teammates. In this spot, Hidalgo flied out to LF to end the threat.

Mota retired Houston in order in the sixth, and Mike Gallo relieved Redding in the bottom half after the former had given up two two-out hits. Gallo got out of the mess to keep the score where it was, but still Houston could generate no offense. The club was facing heat after dealing with off-speed stuff for much of the game, but that's a simple fact, not an excuse. With yet another opportunity before them in the eighth after Hidalgo doubled to CF off Paul Quantrill, the Astros squandered it. Tom Martin froze Berkman on a strikeout, and Gagne entered the game, as closers often do these days, with an out to go in the eighth, and overpowered Ausmus on a swinging strikeout.

McGriff struck again in the bottom of the eighth against Gallo, going once more to RF for his second homer of the game. With Gagne on the mound, there's no practical difference, though, between a 3-1 lead and a 4-1 lead, and LA's save artist preserved this one easily, ending the game with a swinging strikeout of Biggio. The loss dropped the Astros a half-game back of St, Louis in the Central after the Cards split their doubleheader in Chicago Tuesday, and the Houston defeat makes the task of dealing with Kevin Brown all the more imposing on Wednesday night. The Astros need this win, which would mean a series win headed into San Diego, in the worst way. It's quite literally a pivotal game. Either the Astros find a way to beat one of the toughest opposing pitchers they've ever had to face, or they begin a slight downturn that, once begun on the road, could be very difficult to recover from, even with home games upcoming against St. Louis. Which way the Astros turn will depend on whether Bagwell, Berkman, and Hidalgo can produce anything other than helpless swings against the Brown sinker. He's not the pitcher he used to be, but Houston's catching him at a time when he's throwing well, and I'm not optimistic that the Astros will be able to make him elevate the ball by laying off his sinker. If Houston gets to him at all, it'll be early, and we'll have to hope that those runs will be enough for Jeriome Robertson.