Those lizards will always give you a bit of trouble due to the way they are. The best way to deal with them quickly is put haste on and use the en-spell that they weak against as well as debuff them up some. But if I remember right when I ran through on my first time I was never able to get them to stagger before killing them due to having a high stagger limit.

How much have you been using Synergist and Sabeteur? From this point in the game you won't be able to get by without making use of them constantly. Sazh should have Haste at this point so I'd suggest having him in your party. I actually ran with Lightning, Sazh and Fang, but I also made sure to have Sazh learn Cure in the Medic role so that I could have two Medics.