Brewers' Pitching Stuns Astros

May 9, 1998 / 1:30 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Jeff Juden is no Kerry Wood, yet he and the Milwaukee bullpen had the Houston Astros flailing at pitches just the same.

"They're an aggressive team, I knew they'd come out swinging at fastballs, so I just mixed it up," Juden said after striking out seven in the Brewers' 4-1 victory on Friday night in which the Brewers handed Houston a bit of ignominious history.

Houston's batters set an NL record for strikeouts in consecutive games with 31.

The Astros, victims of Wood's major league record-tying 20 strikeouts on Wednesday at Wrigley Field, struck out 11 more times, surpassing the NL futility mark for most strikeouts in consecutive nine-inning games.

The previous record was held by the San Diego Padres, whose batters struck out 29 times against the New York Mets from April 21-22, 1970.

The major league record is held by Seattle 36 strikeouts against Boston pitchers from April 29-30, 1986.

"I'm not real proud of that record," said Astros third baseman Bill Spiers, the only Houston starter who didn't get rung up Friday night.

But Astros manager Larry Dierker said he's not worried one bit.

"Guys that hit home runs strike out," he said. "We got guys that hit home runs. If we had a lot of hitters that just put the ball in play or hit-and-run, bunt-type guys and were striking out this much, then it would be alarming."

It's certainly surprising, said Brewers reliever Chad Fox, who struck out two, including Craig Biggio on a nasty slider to hold a runner at third in the seventh.

"That's a real good team over there and a real tough team to strike out," Fox said.

Shortstop Ricky Gutierrez said the Astros aren't disgraced over their surplus of strikeouts, though.

"No, it's not embarrassing, we're an aggressive team," he said. "We're swinging the bats, we got a lot of hackers on this team. We're not going to be up there looking at pitches and stuff like that."

In fact, nine of the 11 strikeouts were swinging.

The Astros set the record when Moises Alou went down swinging against Bob Wickman in the eighth.

Juden (4-1) also gave up four hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings. Doug Jones pitched the ninth for his 10th save and also got a strikeout.

The Brewers got all the runs they would need with a two-run third.

Jose Valentin led off the inning with a fly ball to right that Dave Clark misplayed into a three-base error. Jesse Levis, a left-handed hitter who started only because he's Juden's personal catcher, followed with a sacrifice fly off Mike Hampton (5-1) for a 1-0 lead.

Mark Loretta added an RBI single off second baseman Craig Biggio's glove, but Jeff Cirillo was thrown out at third on the play to end the inning. TV replays showed Cirillo was sfe.

Mike Matheny replaced Levis behind the plate in the sixth after Levis strained his right shoulder throwing down to second on Jeff Bagwell's stolen base, the fourth of the night off Juden.

Brewers manager Phil Garner said Levis would go on the 15-day DL with Brian Banks getting called up from Triple-A Louisville.

Bagwell, who had struck out five straight times, led off the sixth with a single to left. He scored on Alou's sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.

Marquis Grissom chased Hampton with a pinch-hit RBI double in the seventh, and Loretta led off the eighth with a homer off C.J. Nitkowski.

Notes: Derek Bell, the NL's leading hitter with a .391 average, didn't start. He's 0-for-10 lifetime against Juden. ... The Astros had never visited County Stadium. From 1962-65, the Houston Colt .45s went 14-22 at Milwaukee. ... The Brewers won two of three at the Astrodome last year in interleague play. ... The Astros are playing the final three games of a stretch which features 23 of 28 games on the road. ... As part of a promotion, some fans in the top of the right-field bleachers brought their dogs to the game.