On Friday, the wind in Winter Haven blew out to LF. On Saturday in Kissimmee, it blew out to RF. The Astros took full advantage of the change in the breeze, smashing three homers in an impressive 9-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in front of a sellout crowd of 6147 at Osceola County Stadium. Richard Hidalgo, Jose Vizcaino, and Ryan Thompson all went deep, spearheading an eleven-hit attack that was aided immeasurably by eight walks from the Atlanta staff and three errors. Defensively, Andy Pettitte looked as good in two innings as Roy Oswalt did on Friday, and he earned credit for Houston's first win of the spring, squaring the club's record at 1-1. The Braves, trying to put the pieces together after a hard off-season of changes, fell to 0-3.

This was an excellent, upbeat performance by the Astros, in contrast to Friday's opener. The probable Opening Day lineup took the field and played crisply from the outset. There was only one minor goof-up for Houston in the game. It happened early, so I'll get a mention of it over with quick. After Pettitte set down the Braves in order in the first, the Astros went to work fast in the bottom half against Jaret Wright (geez, first Cleveland pitchers, then an ex-Cleveland pitcher. Can we cut out the Tribe vibe already?) Craig Biggio tapped back to the mound, but Adam Everett reached on an E-6. Bagwell looped a hit to CF that was misplayed out there against a high sky and some wind, scoring Everett. Jeff Kent's first AB of the spring was a success, as he looped a hit to CF, and Lance Berkman reached on an error at 2B as a second run scored. Richard Hidalgo doubled to RF, driving in a third run, and setting up the Astros in a spot to break the game wide open. But a bounder to 3B found Houston's runner less-than-alert and he was thrown out at home, giving the Braves a cheap out. It's a small thing in the context of a long Spring Training, but it's also the kind of baserunning gaffe that a team like the Braves in the regular season would take full advantage of to wiggle out of a tight spot. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to work on baserunning in camp and, as I say, it was the only major mistake of the day.

Pettitte allowed two hits, both in the second inning--a wind-aided poke to CF and an infield hit toward 3B-- but he worked his way out of trouble and out of the game with a grounder to SS, a fly to LF, and a nice strikeout of Eddie Perez to end the frame. In the bottom half, Houston padded the lead, using a double, a walk, and a bloop hit to load the bases and a Berkman sacrifice fly to get run number four across. That fourth run knocked Wright out and brought on Jung Bong, who pitched fairly well until the fourth when a walk, a passed ball, and a base hit to LF by Berkman made it 5-0 and Hidalgo's following homer to RCF made it 7-0.

The game was effectively over, however, after that first inning because Pettitte and those who followed him to the hill were in no mood to repeat Friday's performance. Brandon Duckworth closed out the third inning with a 5-4-3 double play, then sawed off three bats for outs in the fourth. Octavio Dotel, although he did force Hidalgo back to the fence in RF in the fifth for a catch (one of three balls Hidalgo caught that way today), was sharp, ending the fifth with a called strikeout. Yeah, Taylor Buchholz gave up three runs and two hits in the sixth on a fisted single to CF and a mistake that J.D. Drew whacked out to RF, but lemme look closer here: Uh-huh. Yep, looks like a big-league curve to me, folks. Buchholz used that curve twice to set up his fastball for strikeouts in his first appearance as an Astro, showing in brief all the qualities and physical attributes Houston thought it was getting in the off-season trade of Billy Wagner.

After Trey Hodges gave up a hit and walked the bases loaded in the sixth only to get out of it on a grounder to 2B, the Astros struck again in the seventh when Jose Vizcaino, who must hold some kind of unofficial Astros ST record for most consecutive years starting the month off with a homer (I think this is the third straight season he's hit a homer in his first game), smacked one out to RF to make it 8-3 and was followed moments later by Ryan Thompson who shot one out of the park to CF. With those two runs now up, and with the good work already turned in by Pettitte, Duckworth, Dotel, and Buchholz, it would be easy to slide right on by the quick seventh that Kirk Bullinger tossed, but I don't want to. He, too, was very good today, and he has an outside chance to make the bullpen if a young guy like Mike Gallo slips or a veteran like Dave Veres doesn't have a good spring. Veres was solid Saturday, though, picking up a strikeout in a scoreless eighth, and Dan Miceli did the same after giving up a walk in the ninth. The Braves as a team were held to only six hits.

Houston boards the bus for Bradenton on Sunday, with Yankee media no doubt in tow as the club starts Roger Clemens against the Pirates. Rick Sutcliffe commented during Wednesday's ESPN game that he thought Clemens had shut it all the way down after retiring from New York last October, and that he wasn't sure that Clemens could get back in gear for 2004. I respect Sutcliffe's opinion, but I don't think he's right about this. One of the tip-offs that something was up after Clemens left the Yankees was that he continued to work out with his pal Pettitte. Whether those workouts were less intense than they usually are (they might have been), I never figured Clemens would have continued working out in any measure if he didn't want to pitch for some team in 2004, whether it was for the Olympic team or for the club in Houston. As long as he kept up some kind of regimen, some team had a chance to talk to him and to sign him, and a happy set of circumstances landed him in Houston. Clemens typically brings it along slowly in ST. The Astros have hit him before, but the stuff is also there, too. It's that stuff--the high, driving fastball, especially--I expect to see Sunday, at least in flashes. If I see it, I'll count it a good day, regardless of the outcome of the game.