Astros Rally From 11-0, Win, 15-12

The Houston Astros already knew how it felt to blow a big lead. On Monday night, they found out how it feels to overcome one.

The Astros matched the biggest comeback in National League history, rallying from an 11-run deficit to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 15-12, Monday night.

Kevin Bass, Andujar Cedeno, Mike Felder and Ken Caminiti each drove in two runs during an 11-run sixth inning that put Houston ahead, 15-11.

The rally came four days after the Astros blew an 8-0 lead in Pittsburgh and lost, 11-8.

“As we kept getting closer, we started smelling it,” Bass said. “After we made it 11-7, we felt pretty good because we had three innings left and were within a grand slam. It just snowballed from there.”

Houston trailed, 11-0, after three innings. The Philadelphia Phillies overcame a 12-1 deficit to beat the Chicago Cubs, 18-16, on April 17, 1976, and the Cardinals rallied from an 11-0 deficit to beat the New York Mets, 14-12, on June 15, 1952.

The major league record for the biggest comeback is 12 runs, done twice in the AL. The Philadelphia Athletics rallied from 14-2 to beat the Cleveland Indians, 17-15, on June 15, 1925, and Detroit came back from 13-1 to defeat the Chicago White Sox, 16-15, on June 18, 1911.

“That was unbelievable. I’ve never been behind 11-0 and come back to win, not even in the Pacific Coast League, where the ball flies around and you get crazy scores,” Astro Manager Terry Collins said.

“We were down 11-0 and our guys didn’t stop playing. They just kept pecking away and kept getting base hits. I can’t believe what I saw. I was just thinking when each guy came up, ‘Get a base hit!’ and they kept doing it,” he said.

Houston’s 11-run inning came against four pitchers. Bryan Eversgerd (2-1) gave up four runs on four hits without retiring a batter.

“I just pitched the wrong pitchers. It was my fault we lost,” St. Louis Manager Joe Torre said after the Astros spoiled his 54th birthday.

Mike Hampton (2-1) pitched two innings for the victory. Todd Jones got his third save.

Craig Biggio led off the Houston sixth with a walk and scored on Bass’ double. One out later, Caminiti walked and Luis Gonzalez followed with an RBI single.

James Mouton was hit by a pitch that loaded the bases and Tony Eusebio drew a walk that forced home a run. Cedeno hit a two-run single and Felder had a two-run triple that tied the score, 11-11.

Felder said he was so excited on his tying hit that “I almost fell at first base.”

“They got to the ball and made a close play of it,” he said.

After Biggio’s infield single, Bass followed with an RBI single for a 12-11 lead. A walk to Jeff Bagwell reloaded the bases, Caminiti hit a two-run single and Mouton drove in the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.

Said Cardinal catcher Tom Pagnozzi: “At this stage of the season, it will be tough (to bounce back). They say you’re supposed to get over it, but I don’t know how you can do that after blowing an 11-run lead. I don’t think anyone in the ballpark could have dreamed this.”

St. Louis took a 3-0 lead in the first on Gregg Jefferies’ RBI single, an error by Biggio at second base on Ray Lankford’s grounder and Mark Whiten’s RBI double.

The Cardinals scored four times in the second on Bernard Gilkey’s RBI single, Jefferies’ 10th homer of the season, a two-run shot, and a run-scoring double by Todd Zeile.

St. Louis added four runs in the third on an RBI triple by pitcher Allen Watson, a run-scoring single by Gilkey and a two-run single by Lankford.