Monday, September 27, 1999Brewers 11, Astros 3
The Associated PressMILWAUKEE — The Houston Astros are sure looking forward to returning home.
Marquis Grissom went 4-for-6 with a homer and five RBIs and rookie Kyle Peterson got the win Sunday as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Houston Astros 11-3.
The Astros second straight loss and sixth on a nine-game road trip has reduced their NL Central Division lead over Cincinnati from 31/2 games to a half-game. The Reds, who play two games in Houston this week, beat St. Louis 7-5 in 11 innings.
“Unless we can turn it around and have a good homestand it's going to be a very disappointing season,” manager Larry Dierker said. “It goes that way. We won 12 in a row and you can't play that well all the time. I thought we would have a much better road trip.
“The pitching was really poor, the hitting was not great either,” Dierker said. “Just one of those days you have during the season, but you hate to have them at this juncture.”
Peterson (3-7), who lost to Houston in his first career start on Aug. 16, allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two.
“We needed a good performance out of him and obviously got it,” manager Jim Lefebvre said. “He just pitched great.”
Lefebvre said he relished playing the Astros because the series meant so much.
“That's what a pennant race is all about,” he said. “It's pressure. We just caught them on the downside and took advantage of it. They're a good ballclub, they're just struggling right now. But you know what, we played good ball, so lets give credit to our guys. We took two out of three from them.
The Brewers quickly got to Houston starter Scott Elarton (9-5), who gave up five runs and seven hits in 2 2-3 innings, his shortest outing since becoming a starter July 3. Grissom's three-run double off him in the second put the Brewers up 4-0 and he added a solo homer in the fifth and two-run double in the seventh.
“I'm just really trying to finish the season up strong and fight to the last game, the last out and hit the ball hard,” said Grissom, who is hitting .271 with 19 home runs and 80 RBIs. “It's important to end on a positive note and get ready for next year.”
Although the Brewers are going nowhere with their seventh straight losing season, they looked sharper than the Astros, who are in a division race. But Houston players had no excuses for their road swoon.
“We're not doing anything to win,” Houston's Carl Everett said. “You're not going to win if you're not doing anything. You've got to score runs, you've got to shut down runs and were not doing either.”
Bill Spiers, the former Brewer who was attacked Friday night by a fan who ran onto the field during the game, said fatigue from a long road trip was not a factor for Houston.
“That's no excuse. You have to win games at this point of the year,” Spiers said. “That's the bottom line. Everybody is scuffling a little bit right now. That's the way it is.”
Spiers cut the Milwaukee lead to 4-1 in the third with an RBI single. Asked if it was difficult to take the field again after being attacked, he answered simply, “No.”
Grissom's three-run double highlighted Milwaukee's four-run second inning. His 19th homer in the fifth pushed the score to 9-1 and his RBI double in the seventh made it 11-1.
Jeff Cirillo led off the bottom half with his 14th home run, making it 5-1, and the Brewers scored three times in the fourth. Burnitz had an RBI groundout and Geoff Jenkins hit a two-run double to chase Holt. Notes: The Brewers activated catcher David Nilsson from the 15-day DL. Nilsson had been out since Aug. 29 with a fractured right thumb. ... Milwaukee's Mark Loretta extended his 11-game hitting streak with a triple in the fifth inning. ... The Astros lead the NL with 704 walks. ... Houston needs one home run to tie the single-season club record of 166 set last year.
AP-CS-09-26-99 1914EDT
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