After the first pitch of the game there was a baseball game to be played. A.J. Burnett made it look like Marte’s homer would be all the Pirates would need, but that didn’t turn out to be true. Burnett pitched 7.1 innings and gave up four hits and two earned runs while walking one and striking out five. He gave up two home runs in the eighth inning that got him the hook. Brad Lincoln finished up the eighth and Joel Hanrahan pitched another shaky inning but got his 30th save of the year.
Garrett Jones and Clint Barmes hit home runs to get the Pirates to five runs, which was more than enough for the win tonight. The Astros are very, very bad and the Pirates have a good chance to push their record forward with three more games in Houston.