This Day In Astros History: June 29, 1999

On this day, 12 years ago, Shane Reynolds and RIcky Gutierrez led the Astros past the St. Louis Cardinals in a 5-4 victory at the Astrodome.

Reynolds struck out 10 in 7 innings of work, but did not get the victory, as he also gave up six hits, four runs and one walk. He could have picked up the win, but Scott Elarton couldn't hold the lead with no outs and runners on first and second in the top of the eight. 

Elarton relieved Shano and got the first out of the inning quickly. However, Mark McGwire and Ray Lankford followed with consecutive RBI singles. That tied the game at 4-4 before El-Train got out of the inning by striking out Fernando Tatis and Willie McGee.

Since this is the Week of Biggio, it's fitting that he drove in the winning run in the next inning. With one out in the inning, Tony Eusebio reached on an error by Tatis. For some reason, the Astros decided to pinch-run for Eusebio with Glen Barker. He promptly stole second before pinch-hitter Jack Howell walked. That set up Bidge's grounder up the middle to score Barker from second and gave the Astros a 5-4 lead.

Billy Wagner shut things down in the bottom of the ninth, retiring Alberto Castillo, Thomas Howard and Placido Polanco in order for his 19th save of the season.

The only other interesting thing from this game was that it was the 15th time in Shane Reynolds' career that he struck out at least 10 batters in a game. It was also the second-to-last time he'd accomplish the feat, as he struck out a career-high 14 two months later.

Here's a graphic replay of the game, thanks to Back to Baseball.