Morgan Ensberg went 4x4 with four RBI and Geoff Blum smashed a game-busting triple in the ninth inning Saturday night as the Astros, after a three-hour sturggle, finally pounded the San Diego Padres into submission 10-4. Brad Lidge (5-3) won the game in relief, the fifth of seven pitchers used by Jimy Williams because of an ineffective Ron Villone and the closeness of a game whose outcome was not decided until the final two innings. The victory keeps the Astros (75-66) a half-step ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central, and it sets up a to-be-hoped-for sweep this afternoon at the ballpark.

There were extenuating game circumstances Saturday that compelled Williams to go deep into the bullpen. Villone gave up four hits and three walks in just two innings, figures that, alone, go pretty far in explaining why his pitch count was so darn high. Those three walks were part of seven issed by the Astros' staff, a figure that also explains how the Padres, who were held to only five hits in the entire game, could hang around so long. So, while the misgivings I have about how the Astros' bullpen is being used still remain, after this game, I understand it, and, after Octavio Dotel pulled his left gluteus muscle and left the game in the eighth, my tolerance is extended even farther. As of this writing, I do not know how serious Dotel's injury is, but if I may risk a few famous last words, it doesn't appear to be too bad.

Once again, Phil Nevin was the biggest thorn in the Astros' side, cracking a three-run homer in the bottom of the first that wiped out the solo leadoff homer that Craig Biggio had smashed to get the game underway. The homer was Biggio's 13th of the season and his 33rd leadoff homer of his career. The longball, coupled with his two strikeouts Saturday continue a genuine feast-or-famine offensive year for Biggio. Every time his extraordinarily high strikeout totals begin to make me think it would be wiser to drop him lower in in the order, he comes back the next night with something positive on offense--a couple of singles, a double, or a homer. His OBA, hovering around .340, is lower than one would like, but it's respectable. The only fear I have about him is represented in those strikeout totals. If and when the Astros get to the post-season, Biggio is likely to be stopped cold by somebody's slider or curve, and that's going to slow down, if it does not derail entirely, Houston's offense.

Nevin's homer, coming after walks to Mark Loretta and Brian Giles, threatened to derail the Astros' train even Saturday, but Ensberg held a steady engineer's hand on the controls. After Nevin struck again in the third, scoring Giles with a double following Giles's single, a sequence that knocked out Villone and brought on Rick White, Houston mounted a comeback in the fourth against Kevin Jarvis, and Ensberg was at the heart of it. Richard Hidalgo doubled to LF, Ausmus dumped a single out that way, and Adam Everett's RBI single to CF scored Hidalgo. Orlando Merced, used early as a pinch-hitter in the pitching extravaganza, struck out, but Biggio walked, loading the bases. Ensberg then laced a single to shallow LF, a ball that skipped past Giles, who, great a hitter as he is, is not that fine a fielder. Ausmus and Everett were going to score anyway, but when the ball got by Giles, the event emboldened Biggio to try to score from first. The Astros' broadcast crew swore up and down that Biggio got a piece of his body to the plate before the tag, but the umpire called Biggio out and the Astros had to settle for a tie.

Ensberg broke that tie in the eighth, after Dan Miceli, Mike Gallo, and Lidge, had held the Padres in place. Against Jay Witasick, Ausmus singled to CF leading off, then, with one out, Jose Vizcaino slapped a pinch-single to RF. Ensberg's big two-out double to RCF, a really well-struck ball, got both Everett and pinch-runner Colin Porter home with ease to make the score 6-4. The Astros weren't done. They kept up the offense in the ninth, although the first run they scored was kinda painful. Versus Luther Hackman, Berkman walked, Hidalgo singled, and Ausmus walked. Everett was hit by a pitch, forcing Berkman home, and Geoff Blum stepped up to deliver the game-clinching blow against Mike Bynum--a smash to LF that dadgum near cleared the fence for a grand slam but instead stayed in play, good for a bases-clearing double and a safe 10-4 advantage.

Having relieved Dotel through the latter's injury in the eighth, Wagner stayed on into the ninth but, blessedly, had to throw few pitches in the ninth to earn save # 39. Houston needs to count on a lot of innings this afternoon from Wade Miller to give the 'pen a break. Given San Diego's mild climate, there's a good chance they'll get those innings but, even if they don't, Ricky Stone or Kirk Saarloos or Rick White should be able to throw an inning or two.

Saturday's offensive show was precisely what I was referring to on Friday when I was thinking how helpful a breakout game could be for the club. As circumstance and injury would have it, Houston still didn't have a chance to rest its tired bullpen arms, but if the hitters will keep up the pace for a while, scoring five, six or seven runs a game, the needed breathers, the needed rest, will come.