It’s a Lost Weekend for Astros

After a weekend with the San Diego Padres, the Houston Astros don’t like their new home at Enron Field so much.

Eric Owens’ two-run single keyed a four-run eighth inning as the Padres rallied to beat the Astros Sunday, 11-10.

“They look like the ’27 Yankees,” Houston second baseman Craig Biggio said. “We’re just glad they’re leaving town.”

Owens went three for five with a double, triple and four RBIs as San Diego swept its first series in Houston since 1996. The Astros have lost nine of their last 12, and are 2-7 in Enron Field. The Astros (6-11) are off to their worst start since going 4-13 in 1983.

The Padres, who were 1-8 against Houston last season, have won five of six and clinched the season series for the first time since 1992.

“They beat our brains out last year,” San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy said. “It was nice to get some wins here in Houston. To be honest with you, I’m glad to move on. No lead is safe here.”

Al Martin had three hits and scored three runs and Ryan Klesko drove in two runs, including a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning off closer Billy Wagner.

“Even with Billy, the way things have been going for us lately I wasn’t real confident,” Houston Manager Larry Dierker said. “We need to start getting people out.”

New York 15, Chicago 8--Derek Bell, Mike Piazza and the Mets made it a tough afternoon at Shea Stadium for Kevin Tapani.

Bell and Piazza homered and the Mets won their seventh in a row and handed Tapani his 12th consecutive loss.

Tapani’s streak is the second-longest in the 125-year history of the Cubs. Dutch McCall lost 13 consecutive decisions in 1948.

Making his 300th major league start, Tapani (0-3) was tagged for a career-high 10 runs--nine earned. He lasted only 3 2/3 innings.

St. Louis 6, Colorado 3--Mark McGwire hit his second upper-deck home run in as many days and Placido Polanco had a grand slam at St. Louis as the Cardinals extended their league-record April total to 44 homers.

The Cardinals broke the record of 41 homers set by the 1997 Atlanta Braves with two on Saturday night. They have homered in 15 consecutive games, two shy of the club record set in 1998, with 34 during the streak.

The game was called after 6 1/2 innings following a rain delay of 1 hour 56 minutes.

Montreal 6, Milwaukee 4--Vladimir Guerrero, who had already driven in two runs, was walked intentionally with first base occupied during a four-run fourth inning at Montreal.

Guerrero had a run-scoring single in the first and doubles in a run in the third, giving him 25 RBIs. He raised his average to .439 (29 for 66).

Guerrero was walked intentionally with runners on first and third and two outs in the fourth after Rondell White singled to give Montreal a 4-3 lead. Reliever Matt Williams walked Lee Stevens and Trace Coquillette to increase Montreal’s lead to 6-3.

Atlanta 5, Pittsburgh 3--Andres Galarraga broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning at Atlanta with his seventh homer and Greg Maddux continued his dominance of the Pirates.

Maddux (3-0) improved his record to 7-0 with a 1.35 earned-run average against Pittsburgh. He issued his first non-intentional walk--a span covering 29 1/3 innings--with a walk to Brian Giles in the first inning.

Florida 5, Philadelphia 2--Brad Penny settled down after needing a five-minute break in the second inning, yielding two runs in 6 1/3 innings to win at Miami.

Penny (3-1), a rookie right-hander, called for the trainer after retiring Scott Rolen to lead off the second inning. He said that he was lightheaded and was “seeing spots” on a sunny 78-degree day.