BC-BBN–Astros-Cubs,0533

Astros 15, Cubs 7

By DAVE CARPENTER

Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) – Carlos Beltran hit two home runs and three other Houston players also homered off a shaky Kerry Wood as the Astros beat Chicago 15-7 Friday, snapping the Cubs’ five-game winning streak.

Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman belted back-to-back solo shots off Wood and Jeff Kent added a homer as Houston won for the ninth time in 12 games, moving back to within six games of Chicago in the National League wild-card race.

Beltran hit a solo homer in the first inning and a three-run shot in the ninth giving him home runs in five straight games.

Roy Oswalt (15-9) allowed six runs in eight innings to get the victory on a hot, muggy day, retiring 13 batters in a row from the fourth inning until two outs in the eighth. David Weathers pitched the ninth.

Oswalt also was involved in a bench-clearing incident following an angry verbal exchange with Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in the second inning, five days after he was ejected for hitting Barrett with a pitch near his head. Both benches gathered near home plate but there were no further incidents. Oswalt later was hit by a pitch by Cubs reliever Kent Mercker, prompting a warning to both sides by home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor.

Houston jumped on Wood (7-6) for four runs in the first inning and never trailed, battering him for eight runs on eight hits in 4 1-3 innings. Besides giving up four homers, Wood walked two and hit a batter while striking out four.

Beltran’s first-inning homer went into the right-field bleachers, one of his four hits. It was his 19th since joining the Astros and 34th overall. Then he connected again in the ninth as the Astros turned the game into a rout.

After Beltran connected in the first, Wood gave up a run-scoring single to Kent and a two-run double to Morgan Ensberg to make it 4-0 after just six batters.

Nomar Garciaparra hit a run-scoring single into the ivy on the left-field wall in the bottom of the first and Moises Alou’s sacrifice fly later in the inning made it 4-2.

Bagwell and Berkman both homered to left, the 20th for each, in the third inning but Derrek Lee got the two runs back in the bottom of the inning on a shot to center, his 28th. Houston added single runs in each of the next three innings on a Bagwell RBI single, Kent’s 17th homer and a Mercker wild pitch following a hit batsman, Beltran’s single and a walk, making it 9-4.

With two outs in the eighth, Lee singled to give the Cubs their first baserunner since the fourth and Garciaparra belted a two-run homer to left to make it 9-6.

But Houston came right back with six runs in the ninth on Mike Lamb’s RBI triple and Jose Vizcaino’s run-scoring single,an RBI single Jason Lane and a three-run homer by Beltran.

Notes: Ensberg left the game with back spasms in the fourth inning. … Garciaparra’s homer was his fourth for the Cubs and ninth on the season. Disney characters Goofy threw out the ceremonial first pitch and Mickey Mouse led the crowd in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch.

AP-ES-08-27-04 1814EDT