Roy Oswalt allowed five hits over seven scoreless innings for his first win, J.R. Towles homered and the Houston Astros hung on to beat the Cubs 4-3 on Saturday.The Northsiders scored three in the eighth and had the tying run on in the ninth after shortstop Tommy Manzella booted Ryan Theriot’s two-out grounder. Theriot went to second on a wild pitch by Matt Lindstrom, but Kosuke Fukudome struck out, giving the Astros their second win in three games after an 0-8 start.Tom Gorzelanny (0-1) gave up two runs in the second and left after being hit in the left arm by Pedro Feliz’s line drive in the third. Alfonso Soriano had another tough day in left field, dropping a fly ball.Towles raised his average from .056 to .182 with three hits and led off the fifth with his first homer. He also drove in two runs and scored two.A tough-luck loser in his first two starts, Oswalt (1-2) took sole possession of second place on the Astros’ career wins list with his 138th victory and moved ahead of Larry Dierker. He now trails Joe Niekro by six after striking out six without a walk.Brandon Lyon came on in the eighth and gave up a two-run double to left by Aramis Ramirez with one out, making it 4-2. Marlon Byrd then struck out before Soriano doubled down the left-field line to cut the lead to one. Chris Sampson then retired Mike Fontenot on a grounder to second to end the inning.Lindstrom then converted his first save with a scoreless ninth.
Gorzelanny’s arm was bruised in the third when Feliz’s liner struck just below his pitching shoulder. The ball ricocheted toward first baseman Derrick Lee, who stepped on the bag for the second out.Gorzelanny stayed in after a visit by the training staff, manager Lou Piniella and pitching coach Larry Rothschild, retiring Carlos Lee on a fly to deep left after throwing three warmup pitches. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom half, and Jeff Gray came on in the fourth, allowing one hit in two innings.That hit, however, was a line drive by Towles off the left-field foul pole. The Astros got another run in the seventh when Jeff Keppinger singled in Towles, and that was enough for Oswalt.The Astros finally gave him some run support early on after failing to score with him in the game in his first two starts.For the Cubs, it was a rough day.Besides losing Gorzelanny, Soriano was hearing boos again after his latest mishap in the field. He was slow to come in on Jason Michaels’ short fly with two out in the fifth and dropped the ball for his third error of the season, this one coming after he made a neat catch on a liner to left-center the previous day.