PIRATES Astros pull out 5-4 win in 10th

Houston rallied from four runs down in the ninth inning to beat Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- No way the Houston Astros could win this one. Not down four runs in the ninth. Not the way Oliver Perez was dominating them. Not after losing, barely 12 hours before, the kind of game that can ruin a season.
Somehow, the Astros did win, and they're wondering if it can be the start to something good in a season that was threatening to turn bad.
Winning run
Preston Wilson singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and the Astros, after losing in 18 innings the night before in their longest game in 17 years, rallied for a 5-4 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday to halt a five-game losing streak.
Good teams seem to pull out games like this once or twice in a season, and manager Phil Garner said the out-of-nowhere win came at a perfect time after an 8-7 loss Saturday night that was admittedly tough on the Astros mentally and physically.
"That was really good," Garner said. "It looked awful, so pulling that one out was pretty nice."
The defending NL champion Astros won't have long to find out if they can build on their remarkable comeback. They have lost 16 of 23 going into a three-game series in St. Louis, the team they beat in the NL championship series last season.
"There always seems to be that one game you look back at," Morgan Ensberg said. "This could be it."
Even in an already bad season for the Pirates -- they are 16-34 -- this was a terrible loss. Jason Bay homered in a sixth consecutive game, Jose Bautista hit a three-run shot and Perez allowed only three singles over eight shutout innings, yet the Pirates were denied their first three-game series sweep in almost two years.
"It's real tough when you're up 4-0 and then, boom, it's 4-4," Bay said. "That's definitely going to suck the life out of a team."
Perez, making his third consecutive strong start, started the ninth despite throwing 120 pitches to that point and quickly gave up singles to Ensberg and Mike Lamb. Mike Gonzalez later walked Jason Lane and Willy Taveras to force in runs and also allowed Eric Bruntlett's RBI single, and Salomon Torres gave up Brad Ausmus' tying sacrifice fly.
"Ollie threw such a great game, you've got to go out there and do what you can and make sure you get those outs," Gonzalez said.
Pitches out of trouble
Torres (2-2), pitching for the eighth time in nine games, started the 10th by doing what Perez did the inning before by giving up singles to Ensberg and Lamb. Wilson's single made it 5-4, but Torres managed to avoid any more scoring when Lamb was tagged out at the plate on a failed suicide squeeze.
"A couple of balls fell in, and we haven't been having that happen," Garner said. "We flipped a few balls in there and found some holes."
Chad Qualls (3-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the victory. Brad Lidge, erratic of late in save situations, finished up for his 13th save in 16 opportunities, stranding a runner on second to end the game.