Astros Blow Past White Sox

Jeff Bagwell and Moises Alou had big nights in a 17-2 rout of the Chicago White Sox and the Houston players agreed it’s a good feeling to have such good hitters in the lineup.

Bagwell and Alou each hit two home runs and drove in four runs apiece to lead the Astros.

“It’s nice to know if you’re not hitting, someone else will pick you up,” said Alou, who had his first multi-homer game of the season and the 11th of his career.

“Someone always comes through, Bagwell, [Derek] Bell, [Craig Biggio], all of them. Then if you get all of us hitting at once, this is what happens,” he said. “I probably felt the best I’ve felt this year. I was comfortable and rested because we had a day off yesterday.”

Bagwell, who had 10 homers and 28 RBIs in June to surpass his total for the first two months of the season combined (7 homers, 22 RBI), hit his 16th and 17th home runs.

“It’s easy to play when you’re up 7-2 and 9-2,” Bagwell said. “And our pitching staff did a good job to make it a quick game.

“I felt good tonight. But my main concern is this isn’t the Jeff Bagwell show. I just want to do whatever I can to help. What helps me is knowing I don’t have to have a great game for us to win. We have so many players like Moises and Derek and Craig, we can score a lot of runs any night,” he said.

Every Houston starting position player got at least one hit and scored at least one run as Houston matched a season high with 18 hits. They had not scored more since setting a team record with 19 runs on June 25, 1995, against the Cubs.

“That is a hot club right now,” White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel said. “They’re really swinging the bats well and putting the ball in play right now. They’re impressive. I haven’t seen the rest of their pitchers but their lineup is very impressive.

Astro Manager Larry Dierker said the big night was only fun to a point.

“It’s nice to see everybody hitting at the same time,” Dierker said. “That doesn’t always happen. But when you know you’re going to win, you can’t tell your guys not to get hits and score runs. But after a while, it’s not as much fun. And we all know it can be 1-0 tomorrow.”

Houston improved to 9-3 against AL clubs, and has outscored them 57-13 in its last five victories in interleague play.

Sean Bergman (7-4) allowed five hits in six innings and won for the third time in four decisions.

Jaime Navarro (6-10) was the loser.