Despite the fact that Houston left two of its starting lineup--Lance Berkman and Jeff Kent--back in Kissimmee on Friday, one still would have figured that the offense would be productive.

No such luck. The Astros had "engine" trouble of all sorts in their exhibition opener at Winter Haven. Cleveland combined fifteen hits of various types--bloops off good pitches, wind-aided homers to LF, and rips through a hard infield--with some shaky Houston defense and some less-than-stellar Astros pitching to pound the Astros 14-2 and get the 2004 Grapefruit League season off to an inauspicious start.

The most positive thing that can be said about Friday's game is that the guys that you'd figure would pitch well--Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, and Ricky Stone--did so. Guys on the bubble--Kirk Saarloos, Santiago Ramirez, Mike Gallo--did not. Oswalt, whom everyone is watching because of off-season surgery to repair a troublesome groin, did just fine, pitching two efficient innings, allowing just one hit, and getting five of his six outs on groundballs.

Trouble was, the Astros could get nothing going off Cleveland's starter Jake Westbrook. Craig Biggio led off the game with a hit and was sacrificed up to 2B by Adam Everett, but he was left there by Jeff Bagwell (DH-ing today in the AL ballpark), who flew out to LF and Richard Hidalgo, who grounded to SS.

Hidalgo nearly bailed Brad Lidge out of a tough spot in the third, nailing a runner at home after a base hit by Matt Lawton, but the Indians went ahead and pushed across a run anyway when Eric Bruntlett, playing 2B today, couldn't field an Omar Vizquel grounder. Lidge, who had given up a walk and two hits to set up the trouble, wasn't really pitching all that badly. He was hitting his spots; the Indians were just finding the holes.

Kirk Saarloos, however, wasn't hitting his spots, and the Indians whacked him around in the fourth and fifth. A homer by Travis Hafner up in the jet stream to LF got a second run home; a base hit, a walk, a fly ball to advance the runners, and a grounder to SS scored yet another. Cleveland put the game away in the fifth by scoring six times on five hits, with killer blows being struck by Chris Lapinski (a two-run double to RF) against Santiago Ramirez, who had come in to face him, and by Lou Merloni, who ripped one out of the park to LF for a three-run homer that made the score 9-0. Stone entered the game in the sixth, watched an E-6 and tossed a wild pitch, but was part of a nice 1-6-3 play to escape major trouble

Houston did manage to crank out a little offense. 2B Chris Burke homered to LF with one out in the seventh. Later that inning, Jason Lane struck the first of his two doubles on the day to LF and scored when minor-league vet Phil Hiatt singled to CF.

But with only seven hits, there wasn't much cover for three errors or for poor pitching. Gallo had a rugged seventh, giving up four runs and three hits, including the Indians' second three-run homer of the game. Bobby Chouinard allowed a double, hit a man, and fell victim to the Astros' third error in the eighth (at SS) when Cleveland scored its last run.

It would have been pleasant, of course, to have opened March with a win, but it wasn't to be. The Astros just never could get the offense started against Westbrook or Mike Porzio or ex-Cardinals Jose Jiminez and Luther Hackman. These four will be around for the Indians' pitching staff this year; Fernando Cabrera, whom the Astros reached in the seventh, won't. Still, the Astros did get the requisite work in, and there were several men on the traveling squad--Charlton Jimerson, Mike Coolbaugh, Jason Alfaro, and John Buck--who saw action and looked all right. The first home action of the spring comes up Saturday at Kissimmee when Andy Pettitte starts against the Braves.