Andy Pettitte pitched seven solid innings and struck out ten to earn the victory Friday night at Minute Maid Park in game one of the weekend series.
Pettitte, obviously tired of hearing about Roy Oswalt’s homer two nights ago, hit his first career shot in the 4th inning to tie the game at 2-2. He also had a single in the game, raising the bar with the ongoing competition with Oswalt over who is the bast hitting pitcher not named Brandon Backe.
“I’ve been feeling real good at the plate, but seriously, I’m never up there trying to hit a home run,” he said. “I just happened to run into one. I got lucky.”
Lance Berkman had three hits, including a right-handed shot deep into the Crawfords that provided an insurance run in the 7th.
The Astros drew first blood in the 2nd inning. With one out, Adam Everett hit a fly ball down the third base line that eluded the diving outfielder and rolled to the wall for an easy stand up triple. Brad Ausmus followed with a perfect squeeze bunt.
Pettitte allowed the two runs, all three hits and his only walk in the third. He was perfect the other 6 innings, including retiring 14 in a row to finish out his night.
In the 5th tied 2-2 after Pettitte went yard , the Astros scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. A leadoff double to Craig Biggio , a ground out to the right side by Berkman that advanced Biggio to third and a pop up to left that wasn’t deep enough to score Craig set the stage for the stray pitch.
With a 4-2 lead in the 8th, Dan Wheeler took the ball and pitched a perfect inning.
Brad Lidge walked the leadoff man in the 9th, but blew away the next hitter for a strikeout. The next batter reached on a error by Morgan Ensberg , putting runners on first and second with one out. A hard shot to Berkman started a textbook 3-6-3 double play to end the game.
The win combined with a Co-ard loss brings the Astros to within 5 games of the division leader.
Willy Taveras increased his hitting streak to 14 games with a pair of hits and also stole two bases.
Saturday’s matchup brings the Major League debut of Jason Hirsh opposing Jake Peavy at 6:05.