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| Berkman, Tejada both homer as Astros rout Padres HOUSTON 10, SAN DIEGO 3 |
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By Jeremy Rakes PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer HOUSTON (Ticker) -- The Houston Astros provided ace Roy Oswalt with all the offense he needed in the first inning. Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada both drove in runs during an impressive five-run first inning as the Astros posted a 10-3 victory over the San Diego Padres in Monday's two-game series opener. Oswalt (2-3) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings for his second straight win. The hard-throwing righthander fanned six batters while walking just two en route to his eighth career victory against the Padres in 13 tries. "I feel a lot better. I feel like I'm closer," Oswalt said. "After the Phillies game (on Wednesday), I feel like I have command of my breaking pitches. I throw one pitch that is difficult, and now, I can throw more than one pitch." After Oswalt threw six pitches in the opening frames, Houston's offense exploded on San Diego starter Justin Germano during the bottom half. Michael Bourn drew a leadoff walk, stole second before reaching third on a Kaz Matsui's bunt single. Tejada then plated Bourn with an RBI single up the middle and Berkman belted a monstrous three-run homer to the right-center field for a 4-0. "I got the walk on four pitches, and that was great," said Bourn, who has 13 stolen bases. "The people behind me - Tejada, Berkman and (Carlos) Lee - came to hit. We all just clicked." Hunter Pence capped the inning with an RBI double down the right field line off Germano (0-2), who barely escaped the frame when Bourn flew out with runners on third and second. "(Germano) starts the game off with four balls, and that's not Justin-like," Padres manager Bud Black said. "After the first inning, there were a few glimpses that he might get it together, but when you give up five in the first against a guy like Oswalt, it's going to make it hard." Tejada delivered his third blast of the season with a two-run shot in the second, extending the Astros lead to 7-1. Houston added three more runs in the fourth as Lee had an RBI, Tejada scored on a wild pitch and Berkman came around on a sacrifice fly by Geoff Blum to make it 10-2. "This is the kind of stuff I expected," Houston manager Cecil Cooper said. "It was certainly the kind of offense I expected. We got our table-setters on and created havoc on the basepaths and got big hits." Germano was pounded for 10 runs on 10 hits in just 3 1/3 innings as he ERA raised from 1.35 to 5.01. "I didn't have a real good feel for any of my pitches from pitch one," Germano said. "To lead off the game, I was missing off the plate, but to those righties, I was missing over the plate. That's where the majority of the damage came from." "I think we can just hopefully chalk this up to a bad night," Black said. "(Germano) just didn't make his pitches." Jim Edmonds homered in the second and Adrian Gonzalez also went deep in the sixth for the Padres, who have dropped five of their past six outings overall. "We had some good rips at him, but nothing fell for us," Black said. "(Khalil) Greene hit a ball for us that went down the left field line out of play. Gonzo and Edmonds hit two home runs, but (Oswalt) was pitching with a big lead and throwing strikes. We battled, but it was just too big of a hill to close the gap." |
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