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Tuesday, Aug. 15 8:05pm ET
Lima survives leadoff homer | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
HOUSTON (AP) -- Jose Lima was helped by home runs, rather than just being hurt by them. Lima recovered from a shaky start and Jeff Bagwell and Daryle Ward hit consecutive homers as the Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4 Tuesday night. Lima (5-14) gave up a home run to Adrian Brown leading off the game, and Brian Giles hit a solo shot later in the first inning. Lima has allowed a major league-leading 38 homers, extending his team record. But Lima held the Pirates to only one more run in the next five innings to win for the fourth time in his last five decisions dating back to July 9. "He was dodging bullets out there all night," manager Larry Dierker said of Lima's performance. "When I lifted him for a pinch-hitter, I didn't do it so much to add offense as I just thought it was time to change pitchers." Lima gave up three runs and seven hits. He has permitted 116 earned runs this season, tied with Dierker (1970) and Jerry Reuss (1973) for the most in a year in team history. "A win is a win no matter what," Lima said. "When they pick up the paper in the morning, a 'W' will be by my name. "I felt pretty good at first but after I gave up the home runs, I just told myself that if I wanted a chance to win this game, I couldn't le them score any more," he said. Lima had no arguments when Dierker lifted him. "The way things have been going this year, it probably was better to come out then than to stay in and possibly give up another run," he said. "I don't get mad anymore. I did that once earlier and I just needed to get that out of my system." Pirates manager Gene Lamont didn't see anything wrong with Lima's performance. "Lima threw fine once he got the lead," Lamont said. "Probably the most important thing to do is shut them down the inning after you get the lead and he did that." Kris Benson (8-10) lost his fourth straight decision and is winless in his last seven starts. He lasted 6 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on six hits and five walks. "They're a hot hitting team right now and it's hard to keep them down," Benson said. "Lima was out there and did a great job for them tonight. he got better as the game went on. "I had my changeup, but we couldn't seem to get back ahead of them after they took the lead." Chris Truby also homered for the Astros. Houston, with the worst record in the majors, is 17-16 since the All-Star break. Octavio Dotel pitched 1 2/3 innings to get his sixth save in eight chances. He gave up Pat Meares' solo homer in the ninth. Giles homered, tripled and doubled in his first three at-bats. With a chance to hit for the cycle, he was hit by a pitch from Wayne Franklin in the eighth inning. Tony Eusebio ran his career-high hitting streak to 18 games, a season high for the Astros. After Brown hit his second homer and Giles hit his 27th, the Astros evened it when Bagwell and Ward hit back-to-back homers in the bottom half. Bagwell hit his 34th home run and Ward had his 18th. Lima drove in Eusebio with an RBI grounder to give the Astros a 3-2 lead in the second. Pittsburgh tied it in the third on Giles' RBI triple. In the fourth, Julio Lugo's double gave Houston a 4-3 lead. Game notesPittsburgh's Aramis Ramirez sat out the game with his sore left hand, but was available to play if needed. He was hit by a pitch in Monday's game and X-rays were negative. Club officials said Ramirez, who has gone 48-for-164 (.293) since being recalled from Triple-A Nashville June 19, probably will sit out until Friday. ... The Astros have hit consecutive home runs 10 times this season. ... Bagwell extended his hitting streak to 14 games. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Pittsburgh Clubhouse Houston Clubhouse RECAPS Tampa Bay 3 Boston 1
NY Mets 4
Houston 5
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