HOUSTON -- Some Astros believed they saw Brewers ace Ben Sheets at less than his best Saturday night.
"I felt like if there was ever a time to get to him, it was tonight," said Lance Berkman, who went 1-for-4 and is a .341 lifetime hitter against Sheets. "I don't know if he's hurting or if he's got a dead arm or whatever, but he threw a couple of pitches 96 [mph] but he's normally 97-99.

"His curve was pretty good, but it's not as sharp as I've seen it. It's a testament to him that he was able to hold us down with less than his best stuff."

Said Morgan Ensberg: "In my at-bats, I got pitches to hit, which is unusual. Normally he hasn't missed as much with me and [Saturday] I got a lot of pitches to hit."

Great stuff or not, Sheets scattered eight hits and limited the Astros to two runs in a complete-game, 3-2 win. Remarkably, he pitched nine innings for the fourth time in his last five starts.

Sheets saw the Astros' comments in the morning newspaper, but was unfazed.

"I don't put any stock in anything," Sheets said. "That's a compliment, I think. I'm up there throwing 93, 94, and they're not saying they're seeing it better? That's a big compliment, I think."

Sheets did hit 95-96 mph on the Minute Maid Park radar gun at times, including a 95-mph high fastball that he used to strike out Ensberg with Berkman at second base in the eighth inning. After a passed ball pushed Berkman to third, Sheets struck out Jason Lane to preserve the one-run lead.

"He had power stuff, he grinded and stayed in there and didn't give us many opportunities," Lane said. "We had to earn everything we got against him, and he made the pitches when he had to."

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