Oswalt: Red menace.
(c) Associated Press
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There are three certainties in life - death, taxes and Roy Oswalt beating the Reds. Oswalt upped his career record to 21-1 against Cincinnati Thursday in a 7-4 victory which would have lacked any drama at all had it not been for the bullpen giving the Redlegs a chance to tie it at the end.
Oswalt allowed just one run over seven frames. He got plenty of offensive support as Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee had three hits apiece while Hunter Pence stroked a three-run homer to put the Astros in cruise control.
The pen struggled to get the last six outs with Wesley Wright, LaTroy Hawkins and Jose Valverde each fighting the strike zone. But, with two on and two outs in the ninth, Valverde coaxed Corey Patterson to line out to Lee in left to end the game.
Game Two of the four-game series begins at 6:10 Central Friday with Randy Wolf (7-10, 1-0 as an Astro) facing Johnny Cueto (7-11). Houston is 3-0 this season in Ohio and 5-1 for the year against the Reds.
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