Liftoff, at last: a switch in managers, a clubhouse coming-together and big contributions from Carlos Beltran and Brad Lidge launched the Astros back into postseason contention

Stan McNeal

Not that long ago, the Astros' hopes for a big season had been written off like Jason Giambi's prime, Ken Griffey's health and Larry Bowa's job security. Done, done and done. This was not what a club billed as one of the game's Next Big Things had planned.

Not with the Rocket and Andy coming home. Not with the bashing B's of Biggio, Bagwell and Berkman. Not with one of the game's best 1-2 punches in the bullpen (Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel). Entering the season, picking the Astros to make the World Series, or at least reach baseball's final four, was as trendy as LiveStrong wristbands and your kids' No Show Socks.

For six weeks, the results on the field matched the hype off it. Roger Clemens, on his way to another stellar season, won his first seven starts, the Astros settled in at the top of the National League Central Division and Houston was loving it.

Then came a rough last two weeks of May, followed by a June swoon and July gloom. The first half of August wasn't so great, either. When the Astros woke up on August 15, they found themselves four games under .500, 19 1/2 games behind the first-place Cardinals in the N.L. Central and seven games back of the Cubs in the wild-card race.

These were the byproducts of a 32-45 skid that was as disappointing as Hal Sutton's Ryder Cup weekend, injuries to two of the Astros' top starters, Andy Pettitte and Wade Miller, were part of the problem, but not as much as an offense that seemed to age almost as fast as that of the Seattle Mariners.

Still, the Astros kept grinding. They traded for Carlos Beltran, one of the game's premier talents, but that didn't do much immediate good in the won-lost column. Neither did firing the manager, replacing the hitting and pitching coaches or searching everywhere but monster.com for pitching help.

Throughout this sorry stretch, though, one thing never wavered: the club's expectations. "If you're going to start throwing in the towel just because things aren't going right, you're in the wrong business," general manager Gerry Hunsicker says. "We're not here to play for next year--not with this team."

The Astros, of course, have more than resolve on their side. They have talent. As Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says, "It's a marathon season, and by the end, you're going to find the good teams where they're supposed to be. And the Astros are a good team."

As the season grinds toward an October 3 finish, the Astros find themselves fighting the Giants, Cubs and Padres in the N.L. wild-card race. The Marlins still have an outside shot, too. Entering the week, Houston was on a 37-19 tear and threatening to throw the wild-card scramble into a virtual dead heat.

"If you told me before the season that we were going to lose Pettitte and Miller for half the year, I probably would said we wouldn't be in this position," Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell says. "We battled through it and have given ourselves a chance."

So what happened?

Some of the credit goes to the gung-ho approach of manager Phil Garner, who replaced laid-back Jimy Williams at the break. Some goes to the detailed approach of the new hitting coach, Gary Gaetti, and familiarity with the new pitching coach, Jim Hickey, promoted to the big leagues after 14 years with the organization.

There also was a clubhouse difference between two of the team's stars that may have sparked the turnaround. After Roy Oswalt, like Clemens a Cy Young Award candidate, was ejected for hitting Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in a home start on August 22, he was tweaked in the media by Bagwell, a pro's pro not known for calling out a teammate. Among other things, Bagwell said Oswalt got what he deserved, an accusation that did not sit well with Oswalt. But the two talked out their differences, and in Oswalt's next start, against the Cubs in Chicago, he was confronted by Barrett when he first stepped into the batter's box. Benches emptied, words were exchanged and when the Astros went back to the dugout, something must have clicked. Oswalt beat the Cubs that day and the Astros were off on what became a 12-game winning streak that turned around their season.

Healthy contributions from Beltran and Lidge have helped, too. The 27-year-olds were thrust into new situations at the same time when the Astros traded their closer, Dotel, in late June. The Dotel deal gave the Astros a five-tool center fielder and the closer's job to Lidge. Both have thrived since the moves.

Beltran had hit 23 homers and driven in 51 runs after 77 games with the Astros. "When he first came here, it was just incredible how much he stuck out," Hunsicker says. "The grace with which he plays the game, his overall athleticism, is something to see."

The Beltran acquisition shows just how important winning now is to the Astros. He will become a free agent after the season and likely will command a deal larger than the top prize of last year's free-agent class, Vladimir Guerrero, who signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Angels. If George Steinbrenner digs into his pockets as expected, the Astros could be out of luck.

Still, Houston was willing to give up Dotel (in a three-team trade) for what could be only three months of Beltran for numerous reasons. Among them:

* "We had put so much into this year and made such a commitment to this team," Hunsicker says. "You don't go out and get Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens and not give it that little extra push to win."

* This is likely the last season for this group. Craig Biggio, in his 17th season with the Astros, also is due to become a free agent and, at 38, will be asked to take a big pay cut if he wants to return. Also, there's virtually no chance Houston will pick up the $9 million option on second baseman Jeff Kent for next season.

* The Astros have Lidge, a 6-5 righthander with a mid-90s fastball. He leads N.L. relievers in strikeouts (137 in 85 1/3 innings), ranks among leaders in opponents' batting average (. 187) and has been successful in 24 of 28 save opportunities.

With numbers like that, no one's going to be writing off Lidge--or the Astros--in the closing days of the season.

RELATED ARTICLE: A not-so-wild guess at the N.L. wild card: Cubs.

The top four wild-card contenders in the National League were separated by only three games when the week began, and a fifth team, the Marlins, couldn't be dismissed. All have plenty of pluses--and minuses--as they gird for a climactic run:

CUBS

PLUSES

1 The lineup is loaded with power, and power is good. Four Cubs have hit 30-plus home runs--Moises Alou, Aramis Ramirez, Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee.

2 From No. 1 through No. 5, their rotation is still the best in the game. And that's without Mark Prior and Kerry Wood pitching with their consistency of 2003.

3 Can you say Cubcake? Their schedule down the stretch should be sweet for Cubs fans. Entering this week, the Cubs were 12-6 against their final three opponents--the Mets, Reds and Braves. And the only winning team of the three, Atlanta, will be setting up for the postseason when the Braves visit Wrigley Field.

MINUSES

1 Their bullpen has shown a knack for coming apart. In a recent six-week stretch, Cubs relievers blew seven save opportunities in 15 chances.

2 Being booed at home put Sosa in a funk, and remarks by the club's IV announcers prompted bellyaching from Alou. Dusty Baker has failed to live up to his reputation as a player's manager--he hasn't brought his guys together.

3 Nomar Garciaparra--surprise!--has been in and out of the lineup because of injuries. (There is an upside even here, though: The play of newcomer Neifi Perez, of all players, has made up for Garciaparra's absence.)

BOTTOM LINE

With their schedule, starters and sluggers, watch the Cubs surpass their 88 victories of last season and make the postseason again.

GIANTS

PLUSES

1 Barry Bonds is on their side.

2 Walking Bonds is having a downside beyond annoying ticket buyers. The downside is for opponents--since August 4, following a Bonds walk, the next San Francisco hitter is batting .388.

3 Jason Schmidt has regained his dominating stuff after a rough three-game stretch.

MINUSES

1 Their closer is Dustin Hermanson. Sure, he has converted 14 of 16 save opportunities since taking over for Matt Herges. But give him time. The lack of an overpowering pitch will cost him.

2 The rest of the bullpen isn't going to scare anyone, either. As a group, Giants relievers rank 13th in the N.L. with a 4.52 ERA:

3 Fielding is not their forte. Only the Diamondbacks and Mets have allowed more unearned runs in the N.L.

BOTTOM LINE

The Giants' best chance to make the postseason is to knock off the Dodgers for the West Division title. The teams play six more times, and the Dodgers' rotation is falling apart.

PADRES

PLUSES

1 The top four in their rotation--David Wells, Jake Peavy, Brian Lawrence and Adam Eaton--haven't been hyped like others, but they've been just about as good. The Padres' quartet has combined for a 49-38 record and a 3.66 ERA, compared with the 41-29 and 3.54 figures of the Cubs' top four.

2 Since slugger Phil Nevin was told to stop whining about Petco Park's pitcher-friendly dimensions, he has been on a tear. He hit 10 homers and drove in 37 runs in the first 35 games after G.M. Kevin Towers told him to chill out.

3 At the start of the week, they were 19-9 against their last two regular-season opponents, the Giants and Diamondbacks.

MINUSES

1 The left side of their infield is hurting, literally. Rookie shortstop Khalil Greene, a leading contender for N.L. Rookie of the Year, broke his right index finger, and third baseman Sean Burroughs, who was hitting .298, suffered a season-ending knee injury.

2 No one figured the Padres would miss inconsistent Ismael Valdez, but since trading him to the Marlins, they have not had a win from their No. 5 starter.

3 There's a real power shortage. Only the Brewers have fewer homers than the Padres in the N.L.

BOTTOM LINE

They have too big of a hill to climb.

ASTROS

PLUSES

1 The big guys Ore cranking. Carlos Beltran has a 40-homer, 40-steal season (overall totals with Kansas City, Houston) in his sights. Since the break, Jeff Bagwell has shown his old run production. Only Bonds and Jim Edmonds have better on-base percentages in the second half than Lance Berkman, who also ranks among the N.L. leaders in batting average. And after falling short last season, Jeff Kent is on his way to his seventh 100-RBI season.

2 Mike Lamb has been so hot offensively since taking over for injured Morgan Ensberg that manager Phil Garner won't take him out of the lineup even though Ensberg is healthy.

3 With Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt, they're the only club with two Cy Young Award candidates in the rotation. And Garner plans to make the most of them in the late going.

MINUSES

1 The rotation after Oswalt and Clemens hasn't held up its end. The Astros have 60 wins from their starters--Oswalt and Clemens have accounted for 35 of them.

2 The bridge to closer Brad Lidge is shaky. Besides Lidge, the only reliever who has been with the club all season is Dan Miceli. The rest either are castoffs or minor leaguers who haven't been effective enough to stick in the big leagues.

3 They've stumbled against good competition. The Astros have a 26-35 record against the N.L.'s seven other postseason qualifiers/contenders.

BOTTOM LINE

Can one hot streak make up for an otherwise disappointing season? Don't count on it.

MARLINS

PLUSES

1 Despite a season that would wear out men half his age, 73-year-old manager Jack McKeon has remained upbeat.

2 Josh Beckett finally is pitching like the World Series hero he was last October.

3 They end the season with what for them is close to a sure thing--four games at Philadelphia. In their first 12 meetings this season with the Phillies, the Marlins won 11 times.

MINUSES

1 The Marlins were on their game, riding a seven-game winning streak, when their season was interrupted by hurricane season. And for a young club, the lost momentum was a bigger deal than the rest the players may have gotten.

2 Hard-throwing righthander A.J. Burnett, in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, has a sore elbow that sidelined him after he had won four consecutive starts.

3 Their offense can sputter. The Marlins have scored the fewest runs of any contender.

BOTTOM LINE

No matter how much McKeon downplays it, there's only one way to describe the team's stretch of 30 games in 27 days: brutal. Kind of like the Marlins' odds to pass four teams and end up in the postseason again.--S.M.

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