Wade Miller shut down the Montreal Expos early on Friday afternoon and Ryan Thompson broke the game open late to give the Astros a satisfying 5-1 win in Viera, Florida. Miller got his "A" game back during a four-inning scoreless stint. and Thompson dashed any Expo hopes of rallying in the bottom of the ninth by blasting one out of the park to LCF in the top of the ninth to push Houston back over the .500 mark for the spring at 7-6-1.

A sun-splashed field made life difficult for the radio crew this afternoon and perhaps made the scoreboard operator want to play hooky as well. Nobody--not the operator, not Milo, not me--seemed too sure who was out there or what all was going on at any given moment, but it is reasonably certain that Wade Miller was the main man pitching for Houston and that he had his best game of the spring today. Pitching against a collection of Montreal bench players, Miller was his old self, changing speeds and--this is most important--spotting his stuff down where it's supposed to be, at the knees. Over those four innings, Miller allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out five.

Tomo Okha, part of an Expos starting rotation that still figures to be formidable even after the trade of Javier Vazquez to the Yankees, stretched his day to five innings, and he was good against an Astros lineup that did not include Jeff Kent, Adam Everett, or Brad Ausmus. Okha's toughest inning, however, turned out to be his last. Two walks and a pinch-single to LF by Thompson (just into the game at that point) loaded the bases for Craig Biggio. Biggio hit a bullet toward LF that ate up the SS, Miguel Cabrera, and two runs scampered home. It's always a tough judgment call on the hard Florida fields whether to give a fielder an error or the batter a hit, and the scorekeeper opted for the former on this play. The walks, of course, were key in the inning, in part because the still-struggling Morgan Ensberg showed some more of his habitual patience in taking what he was being offered and in part because the walk for catcher Raul Chavez was one moment in a four-times-on-base day for him, with a couple of hits and a HBP to go with the walk.

Chavez also had a fine game defensively, throwing out Jose Vidro in the first inning on the back end of a strike-'em-out/throw-'em-out double play, and blocking an Octavio Dotel pitch in the seventh after which he nailed Jamey Carroll trying to advance to 3B. That defensive gem wiped out the value of Carroll's double to LF moments before. Chavez couldn't do anything about Ron Calloway's homer to LF in the fifth off Brandon Backe that sliced Houston's lead to 2-1 but, in the end, that hit didn't matter too much. It was Backe's first appearance of the spring after pulling a hamstring on the first day of camp, and one might have expected a problem or two for him. Still, Backe showed a good curve for a strikeout in the inning and threw well. His work was part of a good, five-hit day as a whole for the Astros' staff. Dotel pitched the sixth and seventh, spacing two of those hits, and Jared Fernandez was strikingly good over two perfect innings in the eighth and ninth to earn a save.

That save became much easier to get in the top of the ninth when Jason Alfaro walked and Chavez was clipped on the right hand by a pitch from Seung Song. At least, I think it was Seung out there; the name matches the one on the Expos' roster, but Alan Ashby wasn't at all certain. In any event, Thompson probably sent the fellow, whomever he was, back to the minors on the next bus with a long home run to LCF into a wind that was pushing balls toward RF by game's end. It was Houston's sixth hit of the game

The key performances today seem to me to be those of Miller and Fernandez; the former because of his value as the Astros' # 4 rotation man and the latter because he's pitching as if he will not be denied a spot in the Astros' bullpen. Thursday's camp cuts--including pitchers Carlos Hernandez, Taylor Buchholz, Ezekiel Astacio, Chad Qualls, Kirk Bullinger, Nate Bland, Fernando Nieve and Miguel Saladin--will make that task even easier. In the meantime, most of the aforementioned eight will help compose the pitching staff of the 2004 PCL champion New Orleans Zephyrs. (Even with the fences coming in at the Shrine on Airline, with a staff like that, you gonna bet against 'em? Didn't think so.) The other solid games--by Thompson and by Chavez--keep Thompson's hopes alive of being the first OF to be called up when there's an injury to one of the Astros' OF corps this year, and keep Chavez's status as Brad Ausmus's backup confirmed. In fact, even though it was a ST road game, I was still a little surprised to see Chavez catch Miller today; I thought Ausmus might make the trip, but Chris Tremie and John Buck did. Does the fact that Chavez caught the whole game mean anything? Probably nothing beyond what I just said, but still, I wonder whether Chavez will get any more playing time this season than he did last year after Houston let go of Gregg Zaun (who, by the way, played briefly today for Montreal.)

Because I've been a closet Indians' fan for most of my life (you shoulda seen Luis Tiant in '68), you'd think I'd be overjoyed that the Astros will play them for the third time this spring on Saturday afternoon at Kissimmee. Nope. I'm sick to death of Cleveland, and I hope Tim Redding abuses them mightily over five innings, enough to send the Tribe back to frigid Ohio to wait for an April thaw and to contemplate just how far down in the AL Central standings they'll finish this season behind the Twins, Royals, and White Sox.