Garner Gets Aggressive

The day-after pundits were critical of Houston Manager Phil Garner’s Game 4 decision to insert Jason Lane as a defensive replacement for left fielder Craig Biggio.

The move was part of a double switch with the score tied, 5-5, in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the National League division series between the Astros and the Atlanta Braves.

Biggio had doubled, singled and hit a three-run homer earlier in the game. When his spot in the batting order came up with runners on first and third in the eighth -- and, because of the substitution, closer Brad Lidge due to bat -- Garner turned to pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro.

Palmeiro grounded out to end the inning and Russ Springer, Lidge’s replacement to pitch the ninth, yielded J.D. Drew’s winning single.

“I’ve managed aggressively,” Garner said Monday. “I’ve managed a little bit out of the box in a lot of situations. When I first came into Houston, some of them didn’t work. They began to work in the latter part of the year.

“In [Sunday’s] game it didn’t work out the way I’d want it to, but I don’t think it’s a good time to change.”

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Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox juggled his lineup for the second consecutive game, moving Johnny Estrada into the cleanup spot, where he had only 37 previous at-bats this season. Cox also dropped Marcus Giles from third to seventh and moved Andruw Jones from sixth to fifth. Chipper Jones, who had batted cleanup in Game 4, hit in the No. 3 spot, and Adam LaRoche, who had hit seventh, moved up to sixth.... Asked before Game 5 whether he had felt any sadness regarding the possibility that Roger Clemens had made the final start of his Hall of Fame career, Garner said he hadn’t considered that. “I hadn’t looked at it that way,” he said, “and I’m not going to now that you bring that up.”