Pirates End Lima's Streak

The Pittsburgh Pirates had little choice: Be respectable against Houston or possibly be out of the NL Central race by Memorial Day.

Jason Kendall drove in four runs and the Pirates, outscored 31-10 during Houston's three-game sweep earlier this month, ended Jose Lima's eight-game winning streak by beating the Astros 6-5 Friday night.

Another Houston three-game sweep would have put the Pirates 10 games out by Sunday night, with more than two-thirds of the season left.

"When a team gets swept, it sends a message, and they did a good job of doing that," Kevin Young said. "They're the team to beat in the division, by far. They've proven that."

But Lima (8-2) fell behind 3-0 in the first inning on Kendall's three-run double following singles by Warren Morris and Brian Giles and Kevin Young's walk, then twice gave up the lead run after Houston tied it.

"There's no excuses, I was terrible," Lima said. "I was walking guys and leaving the ball up, and that's not me."

Kendall, who was batting .170 with runners in scoring position, also had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the third following Morris' walk and Giles' double. Lima walked a season-high three.

Young was 2-for-2 with a run-scoring triple in the seventh off reliever Trever Miller after going 6-for-39 with one RBI in his previous 10 games.

Still, the Pirates insisted there was no revenge factor against the Astros, who were 12-2 against them the last two seasons.

"It was tough, but it just so happened that it was Houston," Kendall said. "You can't do anything differently. You still have to take the same approach."

The Astros, criticized by manager Larry Dierker for having only four hits in a 4-3 loss Thursday to Colorado, were held to six hits by four Pirates pitchers. Ladoff hitter Craig Biggio, who took umbrage at Dierker's criticism and suggested the manager bat himself first, was 1-for-5 with an RBI.

Biggio had a chance to drive in the tying run in the ninth after reliever Mike Williams' two-base throwing error sent Russ Johnson to third. But Biggio flied out to end the game.

"We put the bat on the ball pretty well, but there wasn't a lot that was falling in," Biggio said. "That's just baseball. It's just one of those games where you come up a run short."

Pirates starter Todd Ritchie (4-3) squandered the 3-0 lead mostly through his own wildness, walking Jeff Bagwell, Bill Spiers and Richard Hidalgo in succession ahead of Alex Diaz's two-run single in the third.

Ritchie also gave up rookie Paul Bako's RBI double in the second and Biggio's run-scoring single in the fourth following shortstop Mike Benjamin's throwing error, but still lasted six innings for the victory.

"There were too many walks, and you can't keep giving free passes to a team like that because one mistake can clean the bases," Ritchie said. "But we were able to get out of it and the offense scored some runs."

Ritchie did, too. He reached on third baseman Johnson's two-run throwing error in the second and scored the run that made it 5-4 on Al Martin's single. Young's triple put the Pirates up 6-4.

Hidalgo hit a sacrifice fly, making it 6-5, before Jason Christiansen got out of the eighth. Christiansen was activated off the disabled list earlier in the day.

Williams, signed to a $2.2 million contract extension earlier this week, pitched the ninth inning for his ninth save. He had only one career save before this season.

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