Lance Berkman's go-ahead home run in the fifth inning lifted the Houston Astros to a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Berkman's 10th homer of the season, a solo shot to right field, made a winner out of Casey Daigle (1-0), who earned his first major-league victory in more than six years. Daigle won in relief of Brian Moehler, who departed after three scoreless innings with a left groin strain.
Daigle tossed two shutout innings, allowing two hits while walking two and striking out a pair. Thursday's victory was his first since May 10, 2004, when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Matt Lindstrom, Houston's sixth pitcher of the game, pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 20th save.
Jeff Keppinger, Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence also went deep for the Astros, who beat the Pirates for the second time in as many games.
All of Pittsburgh's offense came in the fourth inning, as Ryan Doumit had an RBI single and Ryan Church followed with a two-run double. Rookie Pedro Alvarez came up in the ninth with two runners on, but he struck out to end the game.
Daniel McCutcheon (1-4) surrendered four runs on four hits over five innings in defeat. He walked three, struck out three and allowed three home runs.
Pittsburgh | Houston | |
Daniel McCutchen | Player | Brian Moehler |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 3.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 3 |
4 | Hits | 3 |
7.20 | ERA | 0.00 |
Pittsburgh | Houston | |
Ryan Doumit | Player | Lance Berkman |
3 | Hits | 1 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 1 |
4 | TB | 4 |
1.000 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 11 | 0 | 16 | .297 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Houston | 7 | 4 | 19 | .226 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 1 |