Lance Berkman and Willy Taveras had three hits each to help Roy Oswalt to his fifth win of the young season as the Astros held on for a 5-4 victory over the division rival Cardinals at Minute Maid Park Wednesday night.
Berkman slammed a two run double to left center in the first inning, scoring Craig Biggio and Taveras, and Jason Lane added a sacrifice fly for an early 3-0 lead. Cardinals starter Jason Marquis settled down after that and kept the home team scoreless until two outs in the sixth, when Taveras laced a triple to the right field corner that scored Biggio, followed by another Berkman opposite field RBI double to complete the scoring for the good guys.
Oswalt was in command the entire game, allowing a mere four hits with no walks and five punchouts, but three of the hits were solo homers. He turned the ball over to closer Brad Lidge with a 5-3 lead going into the ninth. Lidge was touched for a run on two hits and a HBP, but held on to record the final out for his league leading tenth save.
Berkman took over the league lead in RBIs with 34, one ahead of Albert Pujols.
The Astros and Cardinals meet again tomorrow night at 7:05 for the final game of the short homestand, Andy Pettitte vs. Chris Carpenter.