Game Hero 83 - 69

Lance Berkman

Five RBI's--first time for him since April 11, 2004 Home run number 20 gets him to the double     sawbuck for the 6th time in his career 2 - 4, one run scored Didn't help with his misplay of Craig Wilson's "triple," though

Ryan Howard's just hit a grand slam off John Foster in the top of the tenth in Atlanta, so the Astros will not pick up ground on the Phillies, although Miguel Cairo drove in Jose Reyes in the bottom of the ninth at Shea, and the Marlins have lost again.

The Nationals are just about toast, and the Marlins are keeping company. . . .

Season high 14 games over, and the magic number down to nine get me going in the right direction, but I feel an unaccountable sense of dread when I regard tomorrow's afternoon start. Sure be nice if I had any confidence that we could beat the Bucs tomorrow. But they've humiliated us all season long, and tomorrow is last licks, I fear.

They shut the Astros out for 28 consecutive innings; now they've accumulated 37 hits and 19 runs against Houston over the last 25 frames. Only the fact that we've had luck with the rookie Gorzelanny and Kip Wells has kept this series from being a massacre. but can we put enough runs up against Duke?