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Monday, Sep. 4 3:05pm ET
Smith ties career high with 11 strikeouts | |||||
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GAME LOG
HOUSTON (AP) -- The Houston Astros had no solution to Chuck Smith. That's nothing new. Smith, a former Astros farmhand, tied his career high with 11 strikeouts, and Preston Wilson drove in three runs as the Florida Marlins defeated the Astros 5-2 Monday. Smith (4-5) allowed five hits and two walks in eight innings, retiring 13 of 14 batters between the first and fifth. Antonio Alfonseca pitched the ninth for his 39th save in 43 chances. "I don't know why he spent so much time in the minors, every time I've seen him, he looks great," Houston's Chris Truby said. "He's done that before against us." Smith was 24-21 in four years in the Astros' organization before the Chicago White Sox took him in the 1994 major league draft. The previous time the 30-year-old rookie faced Houston, he didn't give up an earned run in seven innings but took the loss. "I wanted to show these guys I could play," Smith said. "It felt good going against my former team, and I feel I rose to the occasion. You have it in the back of your mind that these are the guys who said you couldn't compete. If I'd done terrible against them, they would have said we knew he couldn't pitch." The Astros were saying anything but that Monday. "He kept his breaking ball down and he moved his fastball around real well," Jeff Bagwell said. "It's obvious the guy knows how to pitch." Wilson drove in one run in the first when second baseman Julio Lugo misplayed his grounder for an error with Mark Kotsay on third. Wilson added an RBI single in the third and a run-scoring groundout in the fifth for a 4-1 lead. Houston closed to 4-2 when Tim Bogar doubled off the right-field wall with two outs in the fifth and scored when pitcher Chris Holt lined a 3-2 fastball from Smith down the left-field line for an RBI double. Holt (6-14) allowed five runs -- four earned -- and 10 hits in seven innings, setting a career-high for losses in a season. He was 5-13 last year. "I loved the Astros, Chris Holt was my teammate and we were good friends. He knows it was tough for me to get a chance," Smith said. "I don't know what happened. I guess that's baseball. Different people see different things in you. I might have been one that got away." Florida took a 1-0 lead in the first. With one out, Kotsay singled and took third on Cliff Floyd's single. Wilson then hit a slow roller that Lugo bobbled for an error. Houston tied the game in the bottom half when Lugo tripled with one out and scored on a wild pitch. Smith held the Astros scoreless from that point until Holt's double. "Chuck is one of the great stories of this season," Florida manager John Boles said. "He has major league stuff, he can throw four or five pitches for strikes." Run-scoring singles by Wilson and Mike Lowell gave Florida a 3-1 lead in the third inning. Lowell has hit safely in a career-high 15 consecutive games. Alex Gonzalez added a sacrifice fly in the seventh for Florida, scoring Floyd, who had three hits. Game notesThe Marlins recalled INF Chris Clapinski from Class A Brevard County. ... Astros rookie Mitch Meluskey hit cleanup for the first time this season. ... The Astros said RHP Scott Linebrink and C Frank Charles will be called up from Triple-A New Orleans on Tuesday. ... Holt has allowed an NL-leading 12 sacrifice flies, one short of the Astros season record set by Mark Lemongello in 1978. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Florida Clubhouse Houston Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 5 Seattle 1
Florida 5
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