Game 18: Pirates 3 Astros 0

Now that was pleasant. Paul Maholm dominated the Astros tonight, throwing a complete game shutout on only 99 pitches. He allowed only four baserunners all night (three hits and a walk) and one was eliminated by a double play while one was eliminated on a caught stealing. Jack Wilson doubled twice, Jason Bay knocked him in twice, and Ronny Paulino homered to round things out.

There's really not much to say about this one besides to talk about Maholm. He struggled a bit with the strike zone in his first two starts and got hit pretty hard in all three. That wasn't much of a problem tonight. He struck out four guys and only walked one and got 64 of 99 pitches across the plate. He got 14 groundballs and 8 flyballs, which is a good ratio, but not particularly better than his last two starts. All in all, the numbers look about the same as his last two starts except that the Astros simply didn't hit off of him tonight. Whether he was unlucky in his first three starts or lucky tonight, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Still, gotta enjoy a pitching performance like this while we can because whatever the reason, it happened and it certainly was a gem.