Renteria Delivers Knockout Blow
Rick Hummel Of The Post-Dispatch
September 14, 2002
Jason Simontacchi and the Cardinals come out on top against the second-place Astros, who started ace Roy Oswalt.
After the Houston Astros rallied on Thursday to win the first game of a crucial four-game series with the division-leading Cardinals, they felt good about going two legs up on Friday with 19-game winner Roy Oswalt, winner of nine straight starts, opposing Cardinals rookie Jason Simontacchi. A win Friday would have put the Astros two-thirds of the way to their announced goal of winning three out of four and fuel the dream they could win all four and climb back into the race. That dream became a pipe dream.
Simontacchi pitched durably and doggedly into the seventh inning. Right fielder J.D. Drew snatched back a potential three-run homer and threw out a runner at home in the same inning. Greybeard relievers Rick White and Jeff Fassero, who expected to be either at home or sitting this dance out, continued their flawless pitching.
The Cardinals went two for 17 with men in scoring position, but both those hits were by Edgar Renteria, including a game-winning single off Houston reliever Flash Gordon with one out in the 10th inning as the Cardinals outpointed the Astros 3-2.
With two games left in the series, the Cardinals are just as good or better off than when they arrived. They again are 6 1/2 games ahead of the Astros in the National League Central Division race and they've knocked two days off the schedule.
A drained Cardinals manager Tony La Russa smiled weakly and said the game really hadn't been that enjoyable - while it was on. "It's not supposed to be fun," he said, "unless you have a crystal ball and you knew what was going to happen."
Albert Pujols' second hit of the night was a double to open the 10th. Eli Marrero went in to run for Pujols. Gordon, attempting a pickoff, fired the ball to second. But shortstop Jose Vizcaino was not yet at the bag and Marrero dodged the throw, which went into center field, and raced to third.
"(Gordon) thought he had a little daylight there and we caught a break," said La Russa. "We deserved it."
After Scott Rolen popped up, Tino Martinez was walked to set up a double play but Renteria, a .350 hitter with men in scoring position, singled to left for the game-winner.
"If I'm the manager, I'd do the same thing and go for the double play," Renteria said.
The game was saved by Jason Isringhausen, who induced the Cardinals' fourth double play of the night to end the game in the 10th.
"Our magic number is in single digits (9) and that's not bad with two weeks to play," said La Russa. "But it's still not close enough. Our strategy is to get so far ahead I can't mess it up."
The save was the 30th for Isringhausen. The Astros are in need of some life support.
"The thing was for us to sweep the series to get back into it and this is going to hurt," said Oswalt, who is winless in five career starts a gainst the Cardinals.
Jeff Bagwell, who was deprived by Drew of a home run in the fifth inning, said, "We would have loved to have swept them, but realistically, I don't think anybody expected us to win all four. Simontacchi pitched a heck of a game and so did Roy. They were able to push across a run and that's why they're in first place." But Bagwell added, "If we're going to make any noise in the last couple of weeks, we're going to have to win here tomorrow."
The Astros scored once in the first, but setting the tempo for his 6 2/3-inning, 122-pitch effort, Simontacchi made them leave the bases loaded.
"What he's done his last two starts, I don't think you can give him enough credit," said La Russa, referring also to Simontacchi's 3-1 win over Chicago last Sunday. "That (Friday's game) was very impressive."
An error by Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds cost the Cardinals a run in the third. But the Cardinals solved Oswalt for two game-tying runs in the fourth.
Center fielder Brian Hunter missed a shoetop catch on Edmonds' liner and, after Pujols struck out, Rolen doubled off the left-center wall. When Daryle Ward had trouble with the carom, Edmonds scored all the way from first.
Martinez was nicked by a pitch for just the second time this season and Renteria singled to left.
In the fifth, the Astros had a chance to polish off Simontacchi but Drew wouldn't let that happen.
After Craig Biggio doubled to left center and Lance Berkman walked for the second time, Bagwell took a shot at a three-run homer to right. But Drew, bothered by a bad right knee and a sore left quadriceps, banged into the wall, reached well above it and snatched the ball from some eager fans. "I don't have a great vertical, but, I guess, just enough for tonight," Drew said. "The last thing in my mind was what my knee's going to feel like when I jump. I definitely thought about it after I jumped."
Biggio advanced to third, setting up the coup de grace of the inning.
Ward flied to short right center. Drew, expecting Biggio to only bluff, made a running catch and threw home to Mike DiFelice, who had to extend for the ball before absorbing the brunt of a collision from the on-rushing Biggio. DiFelice was knocked into next Tuesday but held on to the ball.
An error by second baseman Fernando Vina on a potential double-play ball in the Houston seventh put Simontacchi in a huge hole, but he and Fassero wriggled out of it.
Hunter singled with one out and Biggio grounded to Vina, who bobbled the ball. Hunter stopped to avoid being tagged and when Vina scrambled after the ball, Vina and Hunter banged together in the basepath. When Vina finally picked up the ball, he threw belatedly to second, where Renteria dropped the ball as he stabbed at the bag. "It was a tardy toss," joked La Russa. "(Renteria) got his footwork messed up a little. It's not a play we work on a lot. And I don't think we will."
After Berkman grounded out, Bagwell was walked intentionally and Fassero, who has pitched hitless ball in his past seven outings, relieved to face Ward. The lefthanded hitter had been three for four against Fassero before going hitless the last two nights, and Ward grounded to Vina.
White, who gained his first Cardinals win by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth, has worked 12 games for the Cardinals since being brought up from Memphis and hasn't allowed an earned run.
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