Pedro Feliz's second-inning homer to the Crawford Boxes on a fastball that Roy Oswalt left up and out over the plate was nearly enough to beat the Houston Astros Wednesday afternoon, but in a high-stakes game like this one, Houston held its cards close to the vest, showing one ace for eight innings and reserving for critical spots the two other aces they just happened to draw in today's hand. The first ace was Oswalt himself (10-5), who gave up only two other hits besides the Feliz homer. Ace number two was Jose Vizcaino, who came up with a CLUTCH bases-loaded pinch single in the bottom of the seventh to score the tying and go-ahead runs. The third ace was Billy Wagner, who dialed up his performance in the ninth inning to the highest possible level in striking out pinch-hitter Barry Bonds, popping up Eric Young, and popping up Ray Durham to earn his 44th save of the season. The resulting 2-1 come-from-behind victory, a sweaty-palms affair played in front of 31,525, keeps the Astros (85-73) in the hunt for the NL Central crown, and it pulls them to within half a game of the front-running Chicago Cubs, who throw Shawn Estes against the Reds at Great American Ballpark Wednesday night.

The win also saved the Astros the major embarrassment of having lost to a Giants team that tried to bluff its way through this game with a lineup made up entirely of bench players. It was Felipe Alou's stated intention to rest some of his veteran starters in preparation for the playoffs, and his bench is, without question, an experienced one, but never did I expect that the whole lineup, except for the pitcher's spot, would be manned by subs. The strategic decision nearly worked. Giants' starting pitcher Sidney Ponson manhandled the Astros over 6.2 sickeningly-swift innings, as Houston's hitters turned in what I thought, frankly, was a pathetic performance in a must-win situation. But after getting Houston to tap its way into fourteen groundball outs to go with two strikeouts and three flyouts, the game changed for Ponson with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. He hit Jeff Kent on the shoulder with a pitch after throwing a wild curve behind Kent's head on the previous pitch. Lance Berkman followed with a sharp, opposite-field double off the scoreboard in LF, a blow that, for just a moment, I thought might enable Kent to leg it home with the tying run. But once I saw how quickly Marvin Bernard got over on the ball and played it off the board, about a second after the ball got out there, I knew the best Kent could do was 3B, and Bernard made even that an iffy proposition with a decent throw on the move back toward the base. Ponson and Alou then did what most pitchers and managers would have agreed to do in this spot: they intentionally walked Richard Hidalgo to load the bases and force Jimy Williams to make a decision about the bottom third of his order. Do you pinch-hit for the weak-hitting Ausmus and risk throwing Oswalt's magnificent game off-kilter with backup catcher Raul Chavez? Or do you stay with Ausmus and hope that his relatively-hot second half bat could get you a hit here? My choice would have been to pinch-hit for Ausmus, and that was Williams's choice also.

As Vizcaino, eyes wide in concentration, stepped up to the plate, the ESPN cameras panned around the bases, showing the runners. "How many times have we been here before?" I asked myself, thinking back not only to Monday night's bases-loaded spot in the fifth but also back upon the multitude of similar situations the Astros have been in in playoff games of the past. Had it been anyone other than Vizcaino up in this spot, I frankly would have expected the Astros to fail. But Vizcaino was the only choice, the perfect choice, a bat-control expert with experience in this kind of situation. He swung and missed at an early low pitch from Ponson, but soon got a pitch just a little bit higher up and went with it, slapping a medium-hard liner up the middle. In the thirill of the moment, we saw Kent and Berkman score, but Hidalgo made what I feared at the time was a huge out by trying to advance to 3B on the play. The Giants cut the ball off and nailed him at the base, choking off what could have been a much bigger rally in the making.

Slim as the lead was, the 2-1 advantage represented the kind of hitting I wrote about last night, the kind of hitting the Astros have to do in the playoffs (and this was a playoff game). Berkman, hitting from his stronger left side, goes the other way with a key double. Vizcaino goes with the pitch, meets it, and sends it where it should go, up the middle with some sting behind it. That's what a club has to do in the post-season, and that kind of hitting is exactly what those clubs we commonly recognize as great do every October.

Oswalt was superb Wednesday, both in defending his late lead in the eighth and in holding the line after the early Feliz homer, when a single further run would have been enough to defeat him. Oswalt was in complete command of both corners, changing speeds with the curve and spotting the fastball when he needed to. Over eight innings, he spaced three hits, struck out six and walked no one. Although the headline in tomorrow's paper will justly give Vizcaino credit for his indispensable hit, let the record also show that when the Astros absolutely had to have a near-perfect game, Oswalt gave it to them.

There was, I am sure, much sentiment for keeping Oswalt in and letting him finish this one, risking neither a weary bullpen or a last-minute defeat, but when Scott Eyre relieved Ponson in the bottom of the eighth and walked Adam Everett leading off, the call to the bench, first for Jason Lane and, later, for Orlando Merced to face Feliz Rodriguez in relief of Eyre, was, again, the correct move. The last thing I wanted to see was Oswalt trying to run the bases with his tender right groin, even on a sacrifice bunt attempt. As things turned out, Merced struck out, and Biggio forced Everett at 2B but reached second himself on Neifi Perez's throwing error to 1B. Biggio was left at 2B, and that left Wagner with a have-to-get-it-done ninth inning to pitch.

With all of his regulars sitting out, Alou, of course, had ready-made one of the finest benches in the history of the game to call upon for the last inning. He sent up Barry Bonds to pinch-hit for Rodriquez to start things. Wagner was focused, completely ready to try to atone for Monday's devastating collapse. If you ever needed proof that, whether he wills it or not,Wagner is different in games when a save is on the line as opposed to when it's not, today's game and Monday's should furnish you that proof. If anything, Wagner was too pumped up, throwing the ball high and through Chavez during the Bonds AB. Wagner went to 2-2 on Bonds, and may have gone full on him, I don't recall in the heat of the moment; but Houston's closer was perfect with the out pitch when he had to be, blowing it by Bonds on a swing and a miss, a fastball towards the outer half of the plate that Bonds could not catch up to. The swing and miss was a clean, non-threatening thing, and Bonds could only shake his head and smile in the Giants' dugout at Wagner's unhittable location. From there, Wagner had smooth sailing. Young's popup to Kent on the OF grass came early in the count, and so did Durham's popup to Everett to end it.

Having played their three aces so well today means only that the Astros have won this particular hand and are not yet ready to fold in a game whose jackpot is a trip to the NLDS. Four contests with the Brewers remain--all of which the Astros must win, including a Sunday matchup of Wade Miller and Ben Sheets, regardless of what may be mathematically possible otherwise. To win them, Houston is going to have to do whatever it takes on offense--either rip inexperienced Milwaukee pitching, or beat Ben Sheets on Sunday exactly the way they bested Ponson today. The rotation for the Astros turns to its lower, more problematic half. That cannot be helped, because Miller and Oswalt must be saved for games Sunday and possibly Monday that Houston will have to win. It is conceivable that the clutch performances by Oswalt, Vizcaino, and Wagner will relax the team as a whole just enough entering the weekend to allow the offense to erupt, support whatever pitching the Astros get, and put maximum pressure on Chicago, which could drop one against the Reds and perhaps one against the Pirates this weekend at Wrigley Field. In any case, the hope for help from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh is a vain thing unless Houston wins out. But the Astros just might win out, if they get Thursday through Sunday the kind of playoff-quality performances from the rest of the team that they got from Oswalt, Vizcaino, and Wagner today.