Astros Have No Trouble With Wood

Kerry Wood thought he had his good stuff Thursday night. It didn’t matter to the Houston Astros.

One night after Houston managed only four hits, Craig Biggio hit a two-run homer and the Astros beat Wood for the third time this season with a 9-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

The Central Division-leading Astros took two of three in a key series against the Cubs, who dropped 1 1/2 games out of first place. Houston finished with 16 hits, one short of its season high.

Wood (11-10) lost for the fourth time in five decisions. He lasted only four innings and left trailing, 5-0.

“I had as good stuff as I have all year,” Wood said. “It was like they knew what was coming. I still went out and made the pitches and my velocity was pretty good.”

Ron Villone (5-2) threw five solid innings and benefited from Houston’s early offense.

“It wasn’t a huge series, there is so much baseball left,” Astro catcher Brad Ausmus said.

“It wasn’t an overwhelming amount of pressure, but it was the last chance, the last chance we have, to go against the Cubs. It’s nice to beat a team you know is going to be there at the end.”

Wood gave up six hits, walked two and struck out five -- boosting his major league-leading strikeout total to 208. He has reached 200 strikeouts four times in his five big league seasons.

“I just got beat tonight,” Wood said. “I felt pretty good with the stuff I had today, but they hit it. Even on the Biggio home run, it was a good pitch, a slider down and away. We should beat this team. I had a chance to get it done and didn’t give the team that chance to win.”

The Astros jumped on Wood quickly. Geoff Blum singled and Richard Hidalgo doubled to open the second inning. A sacrifice fly by Ausmus and a wild pitch by Wood gave the Astros a 2-0 lead.

Jeff Bagwell had an RBI single in the third inning, and Biggio’s 12th homer in the fourth gave Houston a 5-0 lead.