Lee: Salary drive?
(c) Associated Press
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Carlos Lee is playing like he's on a salary drive. The $18 million dollar outfielder is hitting too well to take out of the lineup even though the Astros ought to be looking at young players, not veterans. Lee bashed a pair of homers, including a tying two-run shot in the top of the ninth when Chicago pitcher Matt Garza was one strike short of a complete-game victory.
Lee's heroics just allowed both teams to use a lot of their considerable benches until the Cubs beat Houston, 4-3, in 12 innings Friday afternoon.
Marlon Byrd's bases-loaded tapper off David Carpenter was officially the game-winner but the inning got away from Carpenter well before that.
Starlin Castro scored the winning run when Chris Johnson couldn't handle the tapper to third. Replays showed the ball might have gone foul if Johnson hadn't interceded.
Lee got the scoring started with a solo shot in the second but Geovany Soto tied it in the third when he did the same to Wandy Rodriguez. Wandy gave up two more runs in the sixth and Garza made that stand up until Jordan Schafer singled in the ninth and Lee spanked his 18th homer of the season. It was the first multi-homer game for any Astros hitter all season.
The loss was the 99th of the season for Houston, who have lost by one run in four of their last five defeats. Henry Sosa (2-4) will try not to be loss #100 on Saturday in a high noon duel against Rodrigo Lopez (5-6). Sosa lost a previous 4-3 decision to the Cubs while Lopez was the winning pitcher in that same game. Lopez also has two no-decisions against Houston this season.
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