Hit hard by Houston in the past, John Thomson changed his approach Wednesday night. It worked.
Thomson held the Astros to four hits for seven innings and pitched the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 victory in Houston.
"Everytime I've pitched against them before, it seemed like they had my number. Tonight I decided to throw more off-speed stuff and changeups and I got a lot more ground balls," Thomson said.
Thomson was 2-4 with a 7.71 ERA against Houston in six previous games.
"My whole career I've been a fastball and hard sinker pitcher. They are a good fastball hitting team and I'm always around the plate with the fastball," he said.
"I threw a lot of curves tonight and I threw more changeups than I did in the whole month of June," he said.
Jeff Bagwell hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Braves closer John Smoltz. But after giving up Bagwell's 16th home run of the season and 435th of his career, Smoltz finished for his 26th save in 28 chances.
Chipper Jones contributed a pair of RBI singles as the NL East-leading Braves won for the 10th time in 12 games. They have won eight of their last 10 on the road.
Thomson (9-7) gave up two runs, striking out two and walking one. He retired 11 of the last 12 hitters that he faced.
Thomson won for the fourth time in five decisions since June 28. Chris Reitsma pitched a scoreless eighth and Smoltz took over in the ninth.
It was Thomson's fastball that impressed Bagwell.
"To me, he was different than before. He was throwing a new pitch. It was a hard slider or a cutter," Bagwell said. "I don't remember him being that hard a thrower before. He threw the fastball down and in and that's the whole philosophy of pitching."
Thomson also impressed Houston manager Phil Garner.
"On the other side, we couldn't crack the guy," Garner said. "He threw the ball well. He located pretty well and his cutter was deceptive."
Pete Munro (2-3) lasted only 4 1-3 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits.
"They really didn't hit anything hard," Munro said. "They just got enough of the bat on the ball and that one inning ended up being big. I guess a couple of pitches got too much of the plate."
Garner agreed with Munro.
"It wasn't like he got rocketed. They got three broken-bat hits and some other balls that were well placed," Garner said.
Atlanta took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, set up when Johnny Estrada and Andruw Jones singled. Adam LaRoche hit an RBI double and rookie Charles Thomas delivered a two-run double.
"Thomas has been exceptional in everything he has done," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox observed. "His defense has been particularly good and he is hitting .333."
Houston cut its deficit to 3-1 in the fourth on an RBI single by Lance Berkman.
The Braves added another run in the fifth when Nick Green singled, J.D. Drew walked and Chipper Jones singled.
Adam Everett scored on a ground ball by Berkman to cut the Braves' lead to 4-2 in the sixth.
Another RBI single by Chipper Jones gave the Braves a 5-2 lead in the seventh.
METS 6, BREWERS 5: At Milwaukee, first baseman Lyle Overbay botched Gerald Williams' bunt for a tiebreaking two-run error in a five-run seventh inning, and New York won consecutively for the first time in nearly a month.
The Mets overcame a 3-1 deficit in the seventh, when Doug Davis walked Cliff Floyd and Mike Cameron, and Mike Adam (1-1) relieved and allowed a two-run single to Joe McEwing that tied the score. Williams bunted, and Overbay threw the ball into right field.
Pinch-hitter Trent Durrington homered off Mike Stanton in the eighth, and Russell Branyan connected with one out in the ninth off Braden Looper, who got five outs for his 22nd save in 25 chances. Pedro Feliciano (1-0) got his first major league decision, striking out both batters he faced in the sixth.
DODGERS 2, PIRATES 1: At Los Angeles, Jose Lima pitched seven solid innings to win his fourth straight decision and Alex Cora hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh to give the Dodgers the victory.
Cora's two-out homer down the right-field line in the seventh against Josh Fogg (6-8) was his career-high seventh this season. The NL West leaders won for the 23rd time in 29 games.
Lima (10-3) allowed a run and six hits, struck out two and walked none.
CARDINALS 5, EXPOS 4: At St. Louis, Albert Pujols homered leading off the ninth inning, and John Mabry was 4-for-4 with four RBIs to lead St. Louis over Montreal.
Pujols hit his 31st homer of the season, a drive off Chad Cordero (3-2) that capped the Cardinals' comeback from a 3-0 deficit.
CUBS 11, ROCKIES 8: At Denver, Aramis Ramirez hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the top of the eighth after Nomar Garciaparra tied it on Shawn Chacon's wild pitch moments earlier, and Chicago beat Colorado.
It was a wild one at Coors Field, where the lead changed three times in the final three innings — twice on home runs.
After pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh, Ramirez hit a solo homer to make it 7-6. Todd Walker added a two-run homer two batters later for the Cubs, who used 15 hits to win their third straight game and fifth of six.
Sweeney's second pinch-hit homer this year and eighth of his career caused a wild celebration by the Rockies' dugout, which only a half-inning earlier saw Sammy Sosa help steal their lead with a three-run homer and the ejections of reliever Scott Dohmann and manager Clint Hurdle.
DIAMONDBACKS 11, MARLINS 6: At Phoenix, Randy Johnson pitched solid six innings to end his three-game losing skid and Roberto Alomar had four hits and three RBIs to lead Arizona past Florida.