Clemens, Astros halt Pirates, 5-1

It was the Rocket's first ever victory in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Roger Clemens limited Pittsburgh to one run over six innings to win his fourth in a row, extending his strong run of late-season pitching for a fast-fading team as the Houston Astros beat the Pirates 5-1 Friday night.
Clemens has pitched in the majors since 1984, but accomplished something he had never done before in 684 career starts by winning in Pittsburgh. Clemens' 347th career victory was his first there in two starts in a career that has been spent mostly in the American League, and only the fourth victory in 14 games by the defending NL champion Astros.
Lance Berkman homered to the deepest part of PNC Park, a drive into the center-field seats at the 410-foot mark in the third inning, while Brad Ausmus drove in a run and scored twice while reaching base four times. Jason Lane added a two-run homer, his 13th, in the ninth off Britt Reames.
Extends hitting streak
Willy Taveras extended his hitting streak to 28 games with a single leading off the game. Taveras' streak is the longest in Astros history and is the second longest in the majors this season to Chase Utley's 35-game streak for the Phillies.
Clemens (6-4), whose fastball is about 7-to-8 miles per hour slower at 92-93 mph than it was in his prime, struck out only two but repeatedly got keys outs to remain unbeaten in six starts since last losing 2-0 to Cincinnati on July 25.
Clemens is one of baseball's greatest all-time power pitchers -- he is second in career strikeouts with 4,566 -- but this was more about precise pitching than power.
He stranded a runner on second by getting two weakly hit grounders from Chris Duffy and Joe Randa in the third, then worked out of a two-on, one-out jam an inning later by getting Ryan Doumit to ground into a double play.
Bucs only run
The Pirates' only run off Clemens came on Xavier Nady's single in the fourth but, with runners on first and second and a run in, Clemens got Doumit to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Jose Castillo doubled to start the fifth for the Pirates' only extra base hit off Clemens, but the right-hander got out of the inning with an excellent defensive play -- especially for a 44-year-old -- by knocking down Randa's grounder and, while off balance, shoveling an underhand throw to first baseman Mike Lamb.
Russ Springer, Dan Wheeler and Brad Lidge followed Clemens with a scoreless inning each.
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