Reds Hitch Up to Harnisch

Pete Harnisch is making life miserable for his old team.

Harnisch pitched eight strong innings as the surging Cincinnati Reds moved ahead of Houston for the National League Central division lead, beating 20-game winner Jose Lima and the Astros, 4-1, Tuesday night.

Harnisch (15-10) has a 5-2 lifetime record against the Astros and he’s 4-0 this season.

And he did it while hurting. He skipped a start because of the shoulder injury that has plagued him all season.

“It felt sore warming up so I made an adjustment and it felt OK,” said Harnisch, who pitched for Houston from 1991-94. “I had really good movement on my fastball. That’s basically all I had, but fortunately it had a lot of movement. You throw them strike one and they don’t want to see strike two. They swung at a lot of pitches.”

Harnisch allowed four hits. He threw 75 pitches, 59 for strikes.

The Reds have a one-game lead with four games to play.

“It beats being one game behind,” Harnisch said. “We have a lot of fun on this team. We have a lot of fun in this clubhouse. We don’t think too much about anything beyond today.”

The largest baseball crowd in the history of the Astrodome, 54,037, saw the Reds win their sixth straight game and send Houston to its third loss in a row.

Cincinnati had not been in first place since Aug. 19 when it was tied with the Astros. Houston took over the lead the next day.

Lima (20-10) lost his third straight decision since getting his 20th victory Sept. 11. Lima went six innings, allowing four runs and eight hits with eight strikeouts.