GAME THREAD: NL: WASHINGTON (57-69) at HOUSTON (56-70)

Williams sharp as Astros edge Nationals

<h3>HOUSTON 3, WASHINGTON 2</h3>HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Woody Williams continues to turn aroundwhat has been a disappointing season.


Williams pitched effectively into the seventh inning and TyWigginton homered as the Houston Astros snapped a three-gamelosing streak with a 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals onWednesday night.


Williams (8-12) turned in his fifth consecutive impressiveouting and has not allowed more than two runs in a game sinceyielding seven at Atlanta on August 2.


The 41-year-old Williams surrendered two runs and six hits withtwo walks and eight strikeouts. Since coming out of the bullpenon August 5, the 15-year veteran is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA in fourstarts.


"I'm very pleased with the outcome," Williams said. "I was wildin the strike zone and missed a lot of spots. For whateverreason, I was able to weasel my way out of a lot of trouble."

Williams' biggest mistake came in the sixth inning, when AustinKearns smashed a two-out, two-run homer down the left field lineto cut Washington's deficit to 3-2.


"Tonight, I gave them a lot of good pitches to hit," Williamssaid. "That's a very good lineup. I believe if they'd haveswung the bats the way they're capable of tonight, they'd havescored five or six runs easy. Austin Kearns did good jobgetting his hands in and hitting a good pitch for the home run."

Williams was lifted after walking Brian Schneider with one outin the seventh, but Chad Qualls induced an inning-ending doubleplay after yielding a single to pinch hitter Ryan Church.

Qualls hurled a scoreless eighth and Brad Lidge slammed the doorin the ninth to register his 12th save of the season.

"To do it (win) tonight when we needed a stopper after the lastcouple of losses, it was huge," Lidge said. "What Woody didtonight is what he does best - he stopped a losing streak andgave the bullpen a rest."


"That's what we've got to have," Astros manager Phil Garnersaid. "The pitching. We've got to get Roy (Oswalt) back, haveWoody pitching us deep into the ballgame, and the kids have gotto fall into line."


Wigginton blasted a solo homer off Nationals starter Mike Bacsik(5-7) in the fourth inning to give the Astros a 3-0 advantage.It was Wigginton's second home run as a member of the Astros and18th of the season.


Lance Berkman drove in Hunter Pence, who tripled, with asacrifice fly in the opening frame and added an RBI three-basehit over the head of Washington center fielder Nook Logan in thethird to give Houston a 2-0 lead. For Berkman, it was just hissecond triple of the season and first while battingrighthanded.


Bacsik pitched well in his first start since August 12, givingup three runs and seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts.The Nationals fell to 8-9 on the season when he starts a game.

"I threw the ball OK," Bacsik said. "I was inconsistent, I'dsay, and I didn't have my best stuff. It wasn't my worst stuff,but I would just say that I was just OK tonight."


Logan made what Bacsik said was definitely one of the greatestcatches of the year when he robbed Berkman of extra bases byrunning down a deep fly ball to center in the fifth inning.

With Craig Biggio singling earlier in the inning, the Astroscould have made it 4-0, but Logan saved at least one run byretrieving the ball on the incline known as Tal's Hill.

"I just kept running," Logan said. "I knew that the hill wascoming up, and when you get there, you really have to shortenyour steps to get there. I didn't practice (shagging flies onthe hill) because I didn't think I was going to have to run thatfar (to get a ball)."