To be sure, a stunning development

[Jimcs50]

Sept. 9, 2004, 1:34AM

To be sure, a stunning development
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle


This strange season of twists and turns, this season that once seemed headed nowhere, this season that even they seemed ready to write off now finds the Astros in an incredible place.

They awake this morning virtually tied with the San Francisco Giants atop the National League wild-card standings.

Gulp.

The Astros barely had a pulse 3 1/2 weeks ago. They trailed five teams in the wild-card race and were seven games off the pace.

And now this.

Inside the home clubhouse at Minute Maid Park, they're almost out of words. They defeated the Cincinnati Reds 5-2 Wednesday afternoon for their 12th straight victory and 20th in 23 games.

This one was like a lot of the others. They got seven solid innings from Roger Clemens. They hit four home runs. They won.

If you're stunned by all of this, so are they.

"We were dead," Jeff Bagwell said, shrugging.

And now?

"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "I'm just bewildered. I don't think there's any explaining it."


No defining moment
I keep looking for reasons. I ask if it was one player doing something or one game that meant something. I ask if it was a meeting or a fight or something someone said.

Teams that have turnarounds like this one talk later about a defining moment that changed everything.

If the Astros have had one, they're not sure what it was.

Yes, they've had a couple of meetings. Yes, new hitting coach Gary Gaetti has done a tremendous job. Yes, general manager Gerry Hunsicker has done his usual terrific job tweaking the roster.

Yet none of those moves adds up to a run like this, a run that in the last week has seen the Astros get in front of the Marlins, Padres and Cubs.

"It was gradual," manager Phil Garner said. "It looks like it has happened all at once, but there were some good things going on for a week or two before we started getting results."


Minor blip to major weapon
Whatever you thought of the Astros a month ago no longer applies.

Bagwell has had a spectacular three weeks. Carlos Beltran is the best player in the game at the moment. Lance Berkman and Jeff Kent have remained consistent.

And there's Mike Lamb.

"You know," Garner said, "it's the kind of cliché you guys hate, but you don't do things like this without everyone contributing. It really does have to be a team thing."

Enter Lamb.

The Texas Rangers thought so little of him that they didn't even call him up from the minor leagues when rosters were expanded last September. They traded him to the New York Yankees, and last spring, he became one of those under-the-radar acquisitions the Astros are so good at.

Now with Morgan Ensberg sidelined by an aching back, Lamb has made 12 straight starts at third. He's a line-drive hitter and a run producer, having driven in 15 in 12 games.

"Shhhh," Garner said, "he's our secret weapon."

There's also Craig Biggio and Brad Ausmus and a long list of others.

And there's the Rocket Man.

Clemens won his 326th game Wednesday by allowing the Reds one run in seven innings.

His magic was once the only magic the Astros had. Now with so many other things falling into place, he's easy to overlook.

That is, until a day like Wednesday, when he walks to the mound and is so overpowering and so precise that he reminds teammates and opponents alike why there may never be another one like him.

The Reds got the Rocket Man on a day when he was at his Rocket best. And someday, they can tell their grandchil-dren they were part of No. 326.

"It's unbelievable," Reds outfielder Austin Kearns said. "He's just so tough. He's got a 5-1 lead, and you never see a first-pitch fastball. He still starts you off with a slider or a cut fastball or a split-finger."

With a 16-4 record and a 3.19 ERA, Clemens could be headed for a seventh Cy Young Award.

Unless Roy Oswalt wins his first. He leads the National League with 17 victories and appears to have once and for all established himself as one of baseball's best pitchers.

"Roy and myself are going to continue to do what we've been doing, and that's wins and quality starts," Clemens said. "We have young pitchers who are getting on-the-job training, and now they're getting some pennant-race training.

"It's time for them to step up and show that they belong. There's been more than three or four situations where they've already done that, so it's been nice to see."

Beginning today in Pittsburgh, the Astros play 14 of their next 17 games on the road before finishing the season at home with three games against the St. Louis Cardinals and three against the Colorado Rockies.

Not that the road seems like any big deal at the moment.

"We can take the roadshow with us," Bagwell said. "We'll just see what happens."

[Jimcs50]

Enter Lamb.

The Texas Rangers thought so little of him that they didn't even call him up from the minor leagues when rosters were expanded last September. They traded him to the New York Yankees, and last spring, he became one of those under-the-radar acquisitions the Astros are so good at.