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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Pittsburgh 8, Houston 1
When: 2:05 PM ET, Sunday, September 23, 2012
Where: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Tim Timmons, 1B - Marty Foster, 2B - Eric Cooper, 3B - Jeff Kellogg
Attendance: 15207

Pirates 8, Astros 1:
A.J. Burnett recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts and visiting Pittsburgh racked up 18 hits to down Houston and snap a five-game losing streak.

Josh Harrison had four hits and five other Pirates notched two apiece as Pittsburgh salvaged the final contest of the three-game set to win for only the third time in its last 16 games. The Pirates (75-77) are trying to avoid their 20th consecutive losing campaign.

Burnett (16-8) allowed one run, four hits and walked one to snap a personal four-game losing streak. Scott Moore had three of Houston’s hits against Burnett.

The game was scoreless until the fourth, when Pittsburgh pushed across four runs against Jordan Lyles (4-12) on a hit batsman, a wild pitch and run-scoring singles by Clint Barmes and Rod Barajas. Andrew McCutchen smacked an RBI double in the sixth to make it 5-0.

Moore homered in the sixth for Houston, and the Pirates put away the game with three runs in the eighth. Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and Burnett all had run-scoring singles during the frame.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Burnett has won more games just once in his career – when he went 18-10 for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2008. … Houston has swept just two opponents all season. … McCutchen went 2-for-5 to raise his season hit count to 188. The last Pittsburgh player to record 200 or more hits in a season was Freddy Sanchez, who had an even 200 while winning the 2006 National League batting title.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Pittsburgh   Houston
A.J. Burnett Player Jordan Lyles
Win W/L Loss
8.0 IP 4.0
11 Strikeouts 4
4 Hits 6
1.12 ERA 6.75
Hitting
Pittsburgh   Houston
Josh Harrison Player Scott Moore
4 Hits 3
0 RBI 1
0 HR 1
4 TB 7
.667 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Pittsburgh 18 0 22 .391 34 10 8 3 0 0
Houston 4 1 8 .133 6 12 1 1 1 1