Although it wasn't a blowout win, Thursday afternoon's 3-1 Houston victory over the Cardinals in front of a near-sellout crowd in Kissimmee did feature some solid work from two of the Astros' biggest bats. Lance Berkman drove in all three of Houston's runs with a two-run homer to CF in the fourth inning and a double to RCF in the sixth, while Bagwell shook off a first-inning strikeout to collect a bloop hit to RF just before the Berkman homer, and a sharper base hit to LF in the sixth before Berkman's final RBI. That tandem represented most of Houston's offense today, but one must add a third name to the list of those doing good jobs this afternoon. Roger Clemens pitched the best four innings he's pitched thus far this spring, and he got credit for the victory as the Astros squared their record at 6-6-1.

Clemens's stuff was better today than at any previous time in camp, and he was hitting good spots with it. He gave up four hits, two of which were in the first, but Brad Ausmus got him out of a potential jam right then with a 2-6 caught stealing on new Cardinal SS Marlon Anderson. The other two hits came in the second and in the fourth. Clemens struck out two and walked no one. The Cardinals, playing with a split squad Thursday, didn't have their entire regular lineup out on the field, but Anderson was there, Jim Edmonds was there, Scott Rolen was there, and veterans Reggie Sanders and Ray Lankford were also there. It was a fair welcome for Clemens to one of Houston's most intense NL Central rivalries and a good test for him.

Dan Haren matched Clemens pitch for pitch in the early going, and I began to worry that this might be yet another game with little offense. But Bagwell's fourth-inning bloop was one of those little drop shots that sometimes gets a guy going, and Berkman's following blast to CF was a major-league shot, his first long ball of the month, good for a 2-0 Houston lead. The par went back to work in the sixth off the second St. Louis pitcher of the day, Chris Narveson. Bagwell smacked his hit hard to LF, and Berkman found the RCF gap with a double for his final RBI, part of seven Houston hits in the game.

By the time Berkman put up the third run, Dan Miceli had finished his second sharp inning of one-hit baseball in relief of Clemens, with a strikeout along the way. That runner, Marlon Anderson, stole 2B, but John Valentin, today's starter at 2B on defense, made sure he stayed there by snaring a Ray Lankford grounder with a nice barehand pickup--one of those deals you couldn't repeat in a thousand tries, perhaps, but Valentin will take it, as it ended the inning and the scoring threat.

St. Louis broke up the shutout against Dave Veres in the seventh, but the Cardinals had to have Veres's help to do it. A couple of cheap hits and a wild pitch put runners at 3B and 2B; then a balk call forced in the runner from 3B. Ricky Stone, although he gave up the eighth Cardinals' hit in the eighth, threw the ball very well, striking out one, and Brad Lidge made quick work of the bottom of the St. Louis order in the ninth, striking out pinch-hitter John Nelson to start things and then getting a flyout and a popup to 1B to end it.

It's always enjoyable when the Astros beat the Cardinals, no matter what time of the year it is. The ballclub played errorless baseball today, and they were crisper in execution than they have been in the last three games or so. Wade Miller, another man on the short list of Astros we'd all like to see start rounding into solid form (right up there with Clemens and Bagwell and Ensberg) gets his next chance to do so Friday afternoon against the Expos at Viera, Florida. Tomo Okha will start the game on the mound for Montreal.