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Doumit, Pirates deal fading Astros another loss

Sep 21, 2008 - 3:21 AM By Dave Assad PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a non-contender for months. They are making a bid for the fading Houston Astros to join them soon.

Ryan Doumit had three hits and three RBI as the Pirates posted 6-2 victory over the Astros on Saturday night in front of the ninth sellout of the season at PNC Park.

It was the sixth loss in seven games for the Astros (81-73), who fell behind the National League wild card-leading Philadelphia Phillies (87-68) by 5 1/2 games with just eight games left on the schedule.

The first five Pirates who faced Astros starter Brian Moehler got a hit and each scored for a 5-0 lead after the first inning. Moehler was relieved in the second by Dave Borkowski, who gave up one run in two innings.

"I don't have an answer for (Moehler's bad game)," Houston manager Cecil Cooper said. "They all got good hacks at his pitches. None of them was cheap. He's struggled pretty mightily here the last four or five outings. Maybe, he can explain it. I can't."

The key hits in the Pirates' first were an RBI single by Nate McLouth, a two-run double by Doumit, a run-scoring triple by Brandon Moss and a sacrifice fly to deep right-center field by Andy LaRoche, which sent Moss home with the fifth run.

"I threw too many pitches in the middle of the plate," Moehler said of the horrible outing.

Making only the second start of his career and the first since a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on June 27 here, Pirates starter Jimmy Bathmaier got through Houston 's lineup unscathed through two innings despite allowing the first two batters to reach base in the first and second.

"It was definitely more relaxing," Barthmaier said. "I knew what I had to do. I hadn't seen any hitters in a while (since the AAA season ended three weeks ago), so it seemed different to step in there, but I felt good.

"I'm happy they gave me a (second) chance to throw and show them what I can do. My goal is to try and win a spot on the team. That's what I'll be working on this offsason. I don't know if I was on a pitch count. I just wanted to go out there and throw strikes."

Barthmaier gave up two runs in the third and was removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the frame.

"He was a little bit under control and his pitches were better (than the previous start) and his secondary pitches were the ones that helped him out," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "Some of his fastballs to righthanders, they were yanking away, but he settled in and threw the ball good."

Pittsburgh 's bullpen of Jason Davis, T.J. Beam and Sean Burnett did its job by giving up only one hit in four innings. Reliever Tyler Yates allowed four straight batters to reach base in the eighth with two outs as Houston cut its deficit to 6-4.

Pirates reliever John Grabow got the final out in the eighth inning with just two pitches, getting former Pirate Jose Castillo to fly out to right field. Closer Matt Capps recorded his 20th save with a scoreless ninth inning.

"We swung the bats early and hung on," Russell said. "It was nice to jump out front and get a little bit of a cushion ... with a big crowd. It's always nice when the seats are full. You get a big early lead, they can peck away at it, but the bullpen did a nice job.

"It just shows that if we can get things going our way, we'll have a lot of crowds like this. The fans in Pittsburgh are real supportive and, if we can win a lot of games, it's going to be fun."

Davis (2-4) was credited with the win by pitching two perfect innings in the fourth and fifth. Moehler (11-8) suffered the loss, his third defeat in four decisions since September 5.

Houston scored in the third on a broken-bat RBI single by Miguel Tejada that blooped into shallow left field and got its second run in that inning after Lance Berkman hit into a double play with a runner on third and no outs.

Although not spectacular, Barthmaier's showing was an improvement from his previous major league start when he gave up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings to the Rays during a 10-5 defeat for Pittsburgh almost three months ago.

Houston banged out 11 hits but stranded 10 runners, including five in scoring position.

"We had a chance to do some damage with runners on second base and no outs in the first inning, the second, the fifth and the sixth and we came up with goose eggs. That's why we lost," Cooper said.

"We had them on the ropes all night long. We had the tying runs on base in the eighth and ninth innings. We had them all night. All we had to do was get a (timely) base hit. This was another failed opportunity. Too many missed opportunities."