Pirates Sweep Leaves Astros Thunderstruck

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The Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for their third straight come from behind one-run win against the Houston Astros Thursday catapulting them into first place in the National League Central Division. It was also the first ever three-game sweep of the Astros at Minute Maid Park, and the first at Houston since 1991 in the old Astrodome.

The three-game series started on on unusual note when the Air Force fighter jets fly over had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. With the dome closed, the Astros also had to cancel the opening day paratrooper jumps into the stadium.

One the second day of the series, paratroopers jumped into the stadium but used black-and-gold parachutes, the colors of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then, as if to tease the Pirates, in game three the fans started singing "We Will, We Will Rock You", possibly knowing the Pirates main theme this year is "We Will".

But the Astros didn't, and record crowds that included country music star Clay Walker, former President George Bush, and Astros Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan all left disappointed.

Tom Gorzelanny opened the third game and needed 95 pitches to get through five innings of work, but was able to limit the listless Astros offense to just two earned runs and seven hits, while striking out four.

Shawn Chacon, Matt Capps, and Salomon Torres shut down the Astros to just one hit, a 9th inning home run by Craig Biggio, over the final four frames.

But the Pirates were down 3-1 going into the 5th when they erupted for three runs off a shoddy Astros defense that included three errors and only three Pirate hits, while sending nine men to the plate.

Overall, Jose Bautista fueled the Pirates offense with three rbi's, Xavier Nady contributed a double, and Chris Duffy lined a double down the left field line to lead off the game.

The Pirates bullpen has now thrown 10 innings the last three days, allowed just five hits, one run, struck out three, and have yet to walk a batter. That leaves them with a composite ERA of 0.90. Pirate starters have dominated the strike zone as well having issued just three walks so far.

Pirate fans seem to be wondering if our pitching is that good, or the Astros are that bad. The Pirates swept the Astros despite hitting just .250 and striking out 18% of the time. However, because we are converting 74% of all balls in play into outs defensively, the pitching looks superb. And not issuing walks is really, really helping.

Can the Pirates expect to continue winning while producing such little offense and trying to maintain the exceedingly high out conversion rate on defense? That's another question and what we'll have to watch out for.