Astros Prevail With an Unusual Onslaught

Most games that have no home runs hit in them don’t see 27 runs cross the plate.

The one at Houston on Tuesday night did.

The Astros set a team record with 10 doubles as they walloped Pittsburgh, 19-8, at the Astrodome.

“If we put our hits together, with the great hitters we’ve got on this team, nights like this will happen,” said Houston’s Carl Everett, who tied a career high with five runs batted in. “We have a great club and everybody on this team can hit, that’s what scares defenses.”

Ken Caminiti and Jeff Bagwell drove in four runs apiece and the Astros, who had a season-high 18 hits, matched its team record for runs, set June 25, 1995, in a 19-6 victory against Chicago.

Keith Osik, usually a catcher, pitched the last inning for the Pirates.

“I was just trying to help the bullpen,” Osik said. “Those guys have been pitching their butts off and someone needed to suck up an inning for them.”

Caminiti, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games, had an RBI single in the first, a two-run double in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Bagwell hit two-run doubles in the third and fifth innings and walked three times.

Everett had an RBI groundout in the third, snapped an 0-for-13 slide with a two-run double in the fourth, and added an RBI single in the fifth and eighth. His last hit was off Osik.

“I treated it like BP,” Everett said. “A guy used to throwing from a flat surface isn’t normally going to throw as hard as a guy used to throwing off a mound.”

Osik gave up four runs, two hits and two walks in one inning, and hit a batter. He has a 36.00 earned-run average.

Colorado 8, New York 5--Colorado’s Bobby M. won the battle of the Bobby Joneses.

In the first matchup in 100 years of starting pitchers with the same first and last names, Bobby M. beat Bobby J. in the Rockies’ victory over the Mets at Denver.

Todd Helton hit a pair of two-run homers, his third career multi-homer game, in support of Bobby M. (1-1), who gave up two runs--one earned--and four hits in five-plus innings. He walked two and struck out five before leaving after the Mets closed to 5-2 in the sixth.

New York’s Jones (3-1) could not keep up, giving up eight runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. The eight earned runs matched a career-high.

Cincinnati 9, Milwaukee 1--Barry Larkin, Dmitri Young and Michael Tucker hit two-run homers, powering the Reds past the Brewers at Cincinnati.

Four Cincinnati pitchers combined on a four-hitter that allowed the Reds to jump ahead of the Brewers and move out of last place in the NL Central, where they’d been since May 1.

Milwaukee played without second baseman Fernando Vina, who was on the West Coast getting tests on a sore leg. The Brewers also lost first baseman Sean Berry to a pulled left hamstring in the second inning.

Florida 5, San Diego 4--Derrek Lee and Alex Gonzalez homered to help Ryan Dempster win his first start of the season for the Marlins at San Diego.

Lee broke an 0-for-20 slump with a leadoff homer in the fifth, and Gonzalez added a three-run shot later in the inning off former Florida farmhand Stan Spencer (0-5).

Dempster (1-0) gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings with eight strikeouts and two walks. It was his 12th career start, his first since Florida brought him up from triple-A Calgary on Friday.

Eric Owens and pinch-hitter Greg Myers had homers off Dempster. Matt Mantei, Florida’s fourth pitcher, got three outs for his third save as the Marlins won for the third time in 11 games.

Arizona 4, Montreal 3--Hitless in his first three at-bats, Luis Gonzalez improved his hitting streak to 24 games and defeated the Expos in the process, hitting a two-out home run in the 10th inning at Phoenix.

Gonzalez sent a 1-0 pitch from reliever Guillermo Mota (0-1) just over the fence in front of the swimming pool in right field for his ninth homer. Gonzalez had a 23-game hitting streak two years ago with Houston.

It was the night in a row the Diamondbacks beat Montreal with a last-inning home run. Jay Bell did it Monday night in a 7-6 victory.