The San Francisco Giants took apart the Astros Tuesday night in a ten run second inning against Wade Miller and Ricky Stone that combined textbook hitting with defensive mistakes made by a team which, by now, surely feels its dream of a playoff spot slipping away. The 10-3 rout dropped the Astros (84-73) out of first place in the NL Central and probably completely out of Wild Card consideration, too. Chicago, paced by a near no-hit effort from Kerry Wood, shut out Cincinnati to take over the division lead. The two results set up a must-win situation Wednesday afternoon for Houston, when Roy Oswalt opposes Sidney Ponson.

From time to time over the past four seasons, Astroday has discussed the hitting philosophy of the Astros and has suggested occasionally the kind of team I'd like to see Houston become. Those suggestions have been in words, and though words can be vivid tools to convey ideas, nothing beats pictures to get certain points across. If you saw the game Tuesday night, particularly the second inning, you saw the kind of hitting team I wish the Astros could be in their home park. San Francisco destroyed Wade Miller (14-13) with an awe-inspiring demonstration of how to hit and take the heart out of a dangerous opponent. Fourteen men came to the plate in that endless second inning, ten of them scored, and seven got hits. What fascinates me in retrospect (believe me, at the time, the inning was nothing but depressing) is the direction of most of the hits. Marquis Grissom homered to LF leading off. Benito Santiago singled to RCF. Edgardo Alfonso singled to CF. Jose Cruz Jr. ripped a double down the line in RF that a fan grabbed for a ground-rule double. Jason Schmidt walked. Ray Durham's grounder netted a force at home. J.T. Snow singled to RF, scoring a run and moving everybody else up a base. Rich Aurelia wlked to force in a run. Barry Bonds's right-side grounder to Jeff Bagwell offered Houston a chance to get another out, but Bagwell's throw home was low and Brad Ausmus muffed it, allowing another run across. Grissom, up for a second time in the inning, popped to 2B. After Santiago, in his second AB of the inning, walked to force in a sixth run, Jimy Williams did what he had been trying to avoid doing, pulling his starting pitcher with virtually all of the game to go. Stone came in and immediately gave up a grand slam into the Crawford Boxes by Alfonso. After that, Cruz doubled to RF. Stone ended the inning by striking out Schmidt.

It was one of the worst single innings ever in Astros' history, certainly one of the worst--if not the worst--ever endured by a Houston team which may fairly be called a good club. I have not touched upon the emotions of that long inning, in part because I think you can judge pretty well what they were for yourselves. Miller was deeply frustrated, but it was not the frustration of a man who was being squeezed by an umpire. There was no faulting the strike zone tonight. It was the frustration of a man whose best pitches were getting wiped out by a solid, veteran lineup that knows how to attack a pitcher. The second hit of the inning, to RCF by Santiago, was misplayed by Kent and Hidalgo, and that was a door-opener, but Miller has closed such open doors many times in the past. He did not do so on Tuesday. Many folks will point to the homers by Grissom and Alfonso as being the killer hits--and they were big--but look, too, at the number of times the Giants took Miller the other way, going with the pitch. Santiago went to RCF; Cruz Jr. went to RF, and then did it again. Snow and Bonds also went to RF, but that's a natural motion for left-hand hitters. What the Giants did wa show us how a good team gets the job done in the playoffs. Yes, they also went up the middle and to LF, but the last of those blows, Alfonso's slam, was set up by San Francisco's willingness--no, its determination--to go to the opposite field.

The Astros can do that, too, but they don't do it nearly as well or nearly often enough. There was nothing soft about what the Giants did in that second, either. Everything they hit was hit authoritatively. It was an object lesson in how to get the job done. If there are changes in Houston's coaching staff over the winter (and I don't know that there will be), I hope one of those changes involves a pointed, relentless emphasis on hitting to the opposite field, going with the pitch, and doing damage that way. It's the best way I know to beat a pitcher, even when he's on his game, making good pitches.

Houston stuck to its usual approach of trying to pull the ball against Jason Schmidt, but a swinging strikeout on Bagwell in the fourth was symbolic, I thought, of the uniformity and ineffectuality of the Astros' attack. The strikeout pitch was in the dirt, down and away. Bagwell had no shot at it but swung anyway. My point is not that a hit by anyone--Bagwell, Berkman, Hidalgo--would have made a difference; the game was over after the second. My point is that in September baseball, one has to assume going into the game that the opposing pitcher is going to be sharp, as sharp as Schmidt was Tuesday. A team's approach has to be, not a hope that he'll make mistakes that can be crushed, but a concerted effort to do damage on pitches to the outside or inside corner. If one hits those, the mistakes will come, and those can be hit out of the park.

In other words, I think the Astros must assume that Sidney Ponson will be on his game Wednesday afternoon. And I think Houston has to attack him exactly the way the Giants got after Miller and Stone. If they don't do that, if they simply sit back and try to wait for mistakes and play the power game, a strategy that works most of the time against lesser teams, the Giants will wipe Houston out again, Oswalt or no Oswalt. As recently as last Friday night, the peak of the Astros' September run in St. Louis, the ballclub did serious work to the opposite field, but the club has drifted away from that pattern in the days that have followed and the result has been what could turn out to be a fatal four-game losing streak.

There were a couple of good things in Wednesday's game, and it's a shame they were wasted. Jason Lane had his first two-homer gme in the majors after Jimy Williams pulled most of his starters halfway through the game. Lane's blasts, a two-run shot to LF in the seventh off Schmidt and a ninth-inning rip that way off Jason Christiansen, were impressive hits that accounted for two of Houston's four hits and all of its offense. Jared Fernandez pitched three innings of one-hit ball in relief, taking over for Stone. Considering the storm of the second inning, I found Fernandez's work more soothing that the mop-up jobs performed by Rick White and Kirk Bullinger.

We have come to a point in the season which may remind you of the 1999 NL Central race. In that year, the Reds trailed the Astros by one game with five games left to play. Now, it's the Astros who trail by a game with five to play. Then, as now, Houston finished the season at home, perhaps the only advantage left to them. Tuesday's night's drubbing was disappointing, but it was not surprising, at least to me. I mentioned to the subscribers to Astroday Extra that the Astros looked whipped in the ninth inning Monday night--whipped as in "season over." I said I hoped I was wrong, and I still hope I am wrong, but Houston must have two things Wednesday afternoon: they must have a great game out of Roy Oswalt, and they must have a genuine, playoff-caliber performance by the offense. Only by getting those two things might they merit the third thing they need, which they cannot provide for themselves: a loss by the Chicago Cubs, which would keep alive Houston's hopes for the playoffs. But if Houston is to make the playoffs, it has to start playing--and hitting--like a playoff team again.