Game 99: Pirates 9 Astros 3

What a weird, weird baseball game. John Van Benschoten and Runelvys Hernandez took part in some kind of bizarro, awful pitcher's duel in which both starters were terrible (both guys put 10 people on base, Hernandez in 5 and JVB in 5 and 1/3) but didn't give up a ton of runs. The bullpens then proceeded to shut the other teams down and the Pirates looked destined for a sixth straight uninspiring loss, thanks mostly to their sputtering offense. Then with one out in the ninth, the offense clicked to life on a Jason Bay solo home run (and I hate to bring this up, but how many huge hits does Bay have this year? I don't know off the top of my head, but I think the answer is "a lot"). Xavier Nady followed with a single and the red-hot Adam LaRoche hit a homer of his own. It all eventually ended with Freddy Sanchez's inside the park home run, which I think is like the millionth of the year in that goofy little bandbox in Houston. On the ninth inning, Ryan Doumit went 0/2 with a strikeout, the rest of the team went 6/7 with three home runs. What a weird inning to cap off a weird game.

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