The powerball attack Cubs manager Lou Piniella envisioned in March finally made a cameo appearance Thursday night at Minute Maid Park.
Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Daryle Ward and Cliff Floyd all homered off Astros starter Woody Williams as the Cubs beat the Astros 6-2 to win the series and move back into sole possession of first place in the National League Central.
Idle Milwaukee fell a half-game back, while St. Louis dropped to five games behind after being swept by Cincinnati.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could open up a three- or 3 1/2 -game lead?” Piniella said.
“It would seem like a whole lot. We just have to keep playing.”
After the game, the Cubs headed to St. Louis for a big four-game showdown against the Cardinals, with Carlos Zambrano facing Adam Wainwright in the opener Friday night at Busch Stadium.
“We can basically put them out of the way,” Piniella said. “Hopefully, that’s what will happen. But we expect them to come out playing [Friday] night.”
Steve Trachsel, pitching on three days’ rest, picked up his first victory since his return to the Cubs with five innings of two-run ball, and the bullpen finished it off with four innings of one-hit relief, including the final two innings by Carlos Marmol.
The Cubs tied their season high in home runs, set June 8 in Atlanta, when Soriano hit three all by himself.
After hitting only 19 home runs in 964 at-bats in August, an average of one every 51 at-bats, the Cubs already have hit 20 in 448 at-bats in September, an average of one for every 22.
Soriano homered leading off the game, tying Rick Monday’s 1976 club record with his eighth leadoff home run.
Ramirez added a three-run shot three batters later to make it 4-0, and the Cubs were on their way.
After Houston’s Carlos Lee and Mark Loretta hit solo shots off Trachsel in the fourth, Ward, playing first because Derrek Lee was scratched with a sore left knee, added his own homer in the fifth.
Floyd hit his second homer in as many nights in the seventh, after general manager Jim Hendry told him before the game he was his “pick to click.”
It was the same Hawk Harrelson-patented line Piniella had used on Floyd before Wednesday’s game, so Floyd can expect to hear someone tell him that before every game the rest of the year.
The Cubs’ bullpen, much maligned in the first two months, is having a lot of fun these days, both on and off the field.
Scott Eyre, who spent the second through the fifth innings sticking his head through the left-field scoreboard innings window to get a better view of the action, pitched a scoreless sixth to lower his earned-run average to 1.02 since the All-Star break.
“It was awesome,” he said of watching the game through the scoreboard. “There’s just nowhere to sit back there.”
Kerry Wood, who got loose before the game by playing catch with a lucky little boy who just happened to be sitting in the stands with his glove, threw a perfect seventh.
Jacque Jones even had a little fun himself in the ninth, leaping high over the wall in right to rob Luke Scott of a home run, while a surprised fan wondered what happened to the ball.
“He enjoyed deking everybody a little bit,” Piniella said.
It was that kind of night, just as it has been that kind of season. The Cubs are now sprinting toward the finish line, which finally is coming into view.
“I would think that the kids are running a mile now,” Piniella said. “Pretty soon we’ll be running a 440 … and then we’ll be running a 100-yard dash. We’re not jogging anymore.”
———-
psullivan@tribune.com
