Howard’s Grand Slam Powers Cardinals, 10-7

Manager Larry Dierker made up his mind too late, and it cost the Houston Astros a grand slam and, perhaps, a victory.

Chris Holt had just loaded the bases, with the Astros holding a three-run lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh inning Tuesday at Houston. He visited the mound, went back to the dugout and noticed that switch-hitting Thomas Howard was pinch-hitting for Mike Matheny.

Dierker attempted to return to the mound to bring in Doug Henry, but plate umpire Dan Iassogna stopped him because Howard already had been announced.

“We had been looking for a break and we got it,” said Howard, whose first grand slam lifted the Cardinals to a 10-7 victory.

“I knew he wanted to take him out,” Howard said. “So I got real anxious and real aggressive. He left one up and I jumped on it.”

It was the Cardinals’ first pinch grand slam since Ron Gant connected against Mark Gardner on May 8, 1996.

St. Louis, which wasted a 3-0 lead, loaded the bases when Holt (0-2) walked Mark McGwire and Eric Davis around a single by Jim Edmonds. Then came Howard, and Dierker was stunned by the turn of events.

“I did not see when the umpire brought him into the game,” the manager said. “I wanted to bring a left-hander in. I was asking for a ruling on why I couldn’t, but I couldn’t very well contest it when they said Howard was already in.”

The Cardinals knew what was going on.

“The only way you can make a switch when you have a pinch-hitter is to let them throw a pitch,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “ . . . We have a very potent lineup and they made a couple of mistakes and we took advantage of them.

Cincinnati 10, Colorado 3--Ken Griffey Jr. wasted no time getting started on his next milestone, hitting his 13th grand slam to lead the Reds at Denver.

Griffey, who on Monday became the youngest player to hit 400 home runs, was two for four with five runs batted in. He has homered in three consecutive games.

Griffey is 10th on the all-time grand slam list, tied with Harold Baines, Robin Ventura and Mark McGwire for the lead among active players.

Dmitri Young added four hits, including a three-run homer for the Reds, who have at least one home run in each of their first nine games. That was plenty for Ron Villone (2-0) as the left-hander held the Rockies to two runs and four hits in seven innings.

Montreal 7, Pittsburgh 3--Jose Vidro hit a pair of two-run homers and Lee Stevens added a two-run shot at Pittsburgh as the Expos won for the fifth time in six games.

Vidro, who had 14 homers in 290 games before this season, hit a two-run shot in the third after Peter Bergeron’s single and another in the seventh after Bergeron tripled in a run.

Bergeron and Vidro, the top two hitters in the Expos’ order, combined to go six-for-10 with two homers, a triple, five RBIs and four runs scored while reaching base eight times.

Vidro has at least one hit in all nine Expos’ games and is batting .515.

San Diego 3, Arizona 2--Ed Sprague homered with one out in the ninth inning to tie the score, then hit another homer leading off the 13th at San Diego.