Astros’ Drabek Shows Giants That 1993 Is Only a Memory

Staked to an early 3-0 lead Wednesday, Doug Drabek showed off the aggressive pitching style that is helping him and the Houston Astros forget about his dismal 1993 season.

Drabek (9-3) allowed just one earned run and pitched his league-leading fifth complete game to lead the Astros to a 7-2 win over the San Francisco Giants. The game provided a perfect example of why the former Cy Young winner, who lost an NL-high 18 games last season, is back on track.

While he was staying ahead of the hitters, Houston pounded out 12 hits, and the heart of the Astros’ order drove in six runs. The defense turned two double plays behind him, and catcher Scott Servais cut down two would-be base stealers.

“There were some good defensive plays behind me,” Drabek said. “When you know that’s happening, you can go after a team and not give them a chance to get back in the game.

“They’re scoring for me and that makes me more aggressive, but you can’t let your guard down.”

Drabek never allowed the punchless Giants, losers of 11 of their last 15 games, more than one hit an inning. He scattered eight hits, walked one and struck out five, even adding two hits of his own.

“It makes it a lot easier for him to pitch and a lot harder for us to hit when Drabek gets the lead like he had early today. Then he can use all his pitches and you don’t know what he’s going to throw at any time.”

At the plate, Jeff Bagwell, Ken Caminiti and Luis Gonzalez did most of the damage against the Giants for the second day in a row.

With Houston leading 3-1, Caminiti led off the sixth against John Burkett (4-5) with his 12th homer. Gonzalez followed with a double and scored on Servais’ perfect squeeze bunt to give Houston a 5-1 lead.

In the seventh, Craig Biggio’s double and an intentional walk to Jeff Bagwell ended Burkett’s outing. Left-hander Pat Gomez’s wild pitch moved up the runners, and Gonzalez hit a two-run single.

“When you start swinging the bats as a team, that’s what makes it difficult” on other teams, Astros manager Terry Collins said. “Now they have to think about who they want to pitch to.”

Burkett, who has only one victory since April 30, allowed a season-high seven runs on 10 hits in six-plus innings. Knowing that Houston is a better offensive team this season didn’t make him any less frustrated, he said.

“There are a lot of good offensive teams,” Burkett said. “If you give up seven runs in six innings, that’s not good no matter who you’re playing.”

San Francisco rallied for one run in the seventh when Barry Bonds doubled, went to second on a groundout and scored on shortstop Andujar Cedeno’s fielding error.

After hitting two doubles Tuesday, Bagwell doubled again in the first and scored on Caminiti’s single. The Astros took a 3-0 lead in the third on an RBI double by Bagwell, who later came home on Gonzalez’s fielder’s choice.

In the bottom of the third, Kirt Manwaring led off with a double and scored on Darren Lewis’ double-play ball.

Marlins 13, Cardinals 3--The Florida Marlins limped into St. Louis and left on top of the world.

Greg Colbrunn drove in four runs and Jeff Conine went 4-for-6 with three RBIs as the Marlins set four team records. The Marlins had lost five in a row before wining the last two games of the series.

“Every once in a while you’re going to have one of those games where everything goes right and everything works for you,” Conine said. “Today was one of those days for us.”

“It was a little grueling,” Manager Joe Torre said. “It happens. You get your butt kicked and come back tomorrow.”

Every Marlins starter had a hit by the third inning as they roughed up Rick Sutcliffe (3-3) and reliever Bryan Eversgerd.