1 1/2 (Arrrrrgh)

In every pennant race, as Tom Boswell once said, there is always one you want back--always one you know you'd win if they played it again, one you probably lost because you wanted the damn thing so badly.


Such was last night. Rocket's best pitching availed nothing through 5 1/2 innings. Then in the sixth, lead-off man Pete Orr beat a ball off home plate, forcing Rocket to wait helplessly as it hung in the air and Orr flew down the line. When the ball finally returned to earth, Rocket's throw to first beat Orr by half a step--in the view of everyone but first-base ump Alfonso Marquez, who called Orr safe.

Edgar Renteria was next. Orr took off for second, and Adam Everett broke for the bag--and so was a half-step out of position for a line drive he'd have converted for an easy double play. Instead, the ball glanced off Everett's glove and into center field. First and third, no body out. Chipper Jones hit a soft bouncer that, 24 weeks out of the year, Lance Berkman would play for the easy out, conceding the run--but in his zeal to make a fabulous throw out at home, Berkman let the ball bounce under his glove and trickle into right field. Orr scored easily. 1-0.

Then Andrew Jones, batting only because the Braves found themselves in posession of six outs that inning, singled to center. Renteria scored. 2-0. It might as well have been 20-0, so weak were the Astro bats, so resembling the dreary days of June and August, when "back-to-back homers" meant one on Monday and one on Tuesday. The final score (4-1) was almost irrelevant.

St. Louis, given new life, cruised to an easy 10-5 victory in Milwaukee.

Today, back to Sampson.

Sheets goes for Milwaukee.

USC plays Washington State.

University of Houston at Miami.

Texas Tech at A & M.

Ohio State at Iowa.

About it.