Pirates 8 Astros 7 in 18 innings

Umm, holy freaking crap what a game. The game started a good 6 hours ago with me at home dog-sitting and two full baseball games later, we have an end. I mean the thing was long enough that Nate McLouth and Jose Bautista fell into slumps at the beginning of the game and had enough at bats to hit their way out of them (though they didn't). Tracy said it was the players fault tonight, so let's look at who excelled in this one.

• Jason Bay hit a three run homer, his ninth in nine games and in the fifth consecutive game, when we were down 4-2 in the fifth inning. That gave him 4 RBIs on the night for the second game in a row and 43 on the season. Last year he had 25 through the full month of May.
  
• Ryan Doumit, who caught the first half of this one, made an exceptional block of the plate on a dropped fly ball by Jason Bay that could've been disastrous. Doumit blocked Chris Burke at the plate and sold the tag (which he narrowly missed in reality) to the ump to keep it a 6-5 game.
• That opened the door for Jeromy Burnitz, who crushed a pinch hit game tying homer in the bottom of the 8th. He's 2-for-3 with 2 homers off the bench this year. I think we've found the guy a niche.
  
• Mike Gonzlez pitched two lights out innings.
• Damaso Marte stopped sucking long enough to pitch 2 scoreless innings with only one hit and one walk given up.
• Ryan Vogelsong came in and pitched what was likely the game of his life, setting down the 'Stros for four innings on only one hit before giving up a run in his fifth inning of work (aka the 17th inning). I mentioned this recently, but it's worth saying again, Vogelsong has the lowest WHIP in our bullpen.
  
• During Vogie's great outing, Jason Bay robbed a homer, Jose Castillo turned a double play with BOTH FEET OFF THE GROUND, and Jack Wilson went so deep into the hole that he was practically playing third base to get a ball and throw Taylor Buchholz, moonlighting as a pinch hitter tonight, out at first. Just exceptional defense
  
• Luckily, RV's work was redeemed by Jose Castillo's lead-off homer in the bottom of the 17th, putting him onto the list of heroes for the night.
• Which leads us the the 18th and that man, Jason Bay, again. He lead the inning off with a walk, then made his way to third on a ball in the dirt with Craig Wilson up and a wild pitch while Thor was being intentionally walked. Jose Bautista hit a shallow fly to center and Bay decided to run on Willie Taveraz's cannon of an arm. Eric Munson heard the footsteps and Jason Bay Wigginton'd the poor guy into next week, capping off the best Pirates victory in a long time, maybe, oh, I dunno, two years to the day?