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Astros pound out 17 hits to beat Angels

Jun 20, 2007 - 6:04 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- The Houston Astros' offense has come to life.

Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence both homered as the Astros scored at least nine runs for the fourth game in a row to earn a 9-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Tuesday.

Lee drove in four runs and Pence's two-run blast snapped a 5-5 tie as Houston pounded out 17 hits en route to their fourth win in the last five games.

"I had a feeling that Bartolo (Colon) was going to try and get ahead of me so I went after his first pitch and got a good swing on it," Lee said.

Angels starter Colon (6-3) suffered through his fifth rough outing in a row, yielding seven runs and 11 hits in six innings. The burly righthander walked three and struck out three.

In his last five starts, Colon is 1-3 with a 9.79 ERA.

"I don't know what to say, they have just been finding holes lately," Colon said through an interpreter. "I just have been going out and throwing my game but just seems like I can't get a solid start."

The Astros took the lead for good in the sixth. Craig Biggio led off with a single and came around to score when Pence drove the first pitch he saw from Colon into the right field stands for a 7-5 advantage.

Houston added two more in the seventh and put the game away for good with 3 1/3 innings of shutout relief from Rick White and Dan Wheeler.

"We did a good job keeping them off the scoreboard and we just kept scoring runs and our pitching shut them down," Astros starter Jason Jennings said.

The success of the bullpen overshadowed a sub-par performance by Jennings (1-1), who surrendered five runs - four earned - and 11 hits in 5 2/3 frames.

"The first couple innings were just a mess," Jennings said. "I just tried to keep them honest and I got lucky and put up some zeroes in my last couple innings of work."

Jennings, who came over to Houston from Colorado in an offseason trade, picked up his first win in seven starts this season.

The Angels manufactured a run in the first when rookie Reggie Willits led off with a single to right. Willits stole second and moved to third when Orlando Cabrera singled to left. Vladimir Guerrero brought the run home with a sacrifice fly.

"We just couldn't get those big hits tonight that we have gotten used to lately," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Just have to put this game behind us and come out here and try to stop their hot offense."

Anaheim extended its lead in the second with another set of manufactured runs, with Howie Kendrick scoring on a fielder's choice and Shea Hillenbrand coming in on Willits' sacrifice fly.

The Astros got to Colon in the third when Lee blasted a three-run homer to deep center, tying the score at 3-3.

"Bart (Colon) left a lot of his pitches up and out over the plate and no matter what team you are facing, they will hit them," Scioscia said.

After the Angels pulled back ahead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame, the Astros opened the fourth with two runs of their own to pull even again. Biggio, who had two hits to bring his career total to 2,992, drove in a run with a single and Lee notched his fourth RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly.

"I'll take any hit I can get and I can use every one of them," Biggio said. "Every hit is important, especially the ones that help our team win ballgames. This is just exciting for me."