The heretofore unknown Shawn Hill of the Montreal Expos, thought to be ticketed for AA at the end of March, throttled the Astros' offense over five innings on a windy Friday afternoon in Kissimmee, and he also contributed two hits, one of which was an RBI single to RF in the fourth as Montreal edged Houston 2-1 in front of another large home crowd and an ESPN 2 audience.

The weather was gorgeous, but the wind knocked everything down hit to CF and to RF. That condition turned the game into a pitchers' duel even more forecefully than it would otherwise have been. Roy Oswalt was sharp through five innings, but Hill was sharper, and the Expos supported him with single runs in the third and fourth that gave them the margin of victory. Oswalt continued to work on a changeup for the regular season, and it's going to be a devastating pitch for him. Most of his six strikeouts came on it. But Oswalt occasionally left the fastball over the plate, and the pitcher Hill made him pay for that mistake twice.

Hill led off the third with a double to LF, a hard shot that I thought Mike Lamb could have gotten to, but I might've expected too much. Hill later scored on a single to LF by Jose Vidro. In the fourth, Oswalt hit Brad Wilkerson with a pitch with one out, and Jamey Carroll, who had two of the eight hits Oswalt allowed, followed with a knock to RF. After Oswalt got a strikeout on a changeup, Hill stepped up again and laced a hit to RF for a 2-0 Expos lead.

The game stayed that way most of the rest of the way, thanks to good relief work from Rocky Biddle, Mike Johnson, and Dave Maust on Montreal's side, and Ricky Stone, Brandon Backe, and Octavio Dotel on Houston's. Montreal limited the Astros to nine hits, only one of which was well-struck. Ryan Thompson, coming into the game late again, blasted a major shot out of the park to LF in the eighth to cut the lead in half, and he also had a chance to tie the game against Maust in the ninth with two men aboard, but Maust snared his bullet back to the mound down around his lower leg and that was that. The Thompson homer, his game-ending liner, and a screaming liner to LF by Jeff Kent in the sixth off Biddle were really the only balls the Astros hit hard all game. All the other ABs were either controlled by Expos pitching or the balls that were hit were knocked down. A walk to Jason Lane and a good single to LF by Orlando Palmiero in the ninth had Houston set up to rally, but Maust fooled Willy Tavares for a swinging strikeout, and then Thompson's comebacker ended it.

In terms of work, it was yet another good day for the pitching staff, which allowed only two hits after Oswalt left, and not so good for the offense, but I will say that, wind or not, almost everybody up there for Houston was swinging confidently. Lamb, starting his second straight game at 3B, ripped a ball to deep LF that the wind knocked down in the second inning, and Jeff Bagwell had two hits, one of which was an infield job in the sixth. It's also fair, I think, to observe that today's final score would have been 3-1 had not the wind held up Carl Everett's drive to RF in the eighth. He crushed it, and was applauded for his effort in the Expos' dugout despite the out.

The close loss, somewhat disappointing and surprising after Thursday's night's late offensive awakening against LA, drops Houston to 11-9-1 for the spring. The Astros, not starting either Lance Berkman or Richard Hidalgo, did very little against a pitcher that they had never seen before. That bit of musical news plays like a old record, really, but Hill did get a lot of help from the elements. I do take some comfort, therefore, in the belief that, if the Astros keep on swinging the bats as well as they actually did today and last night, they will score some runs--including some homers--in the final two games of the exhibition season starting next Friday against the Royals in Houston. There's still work to finish in Florida, first, though, involving in particular settling the questions surrounding the Astros' bench. Thompson's homer today was impressive, and he might have secured a spot because of it. We shall see.