John Van Benschoten stepped out on the mound tonight with a chance to land himself in the Pirate rotation, all that was required was a quality outing. Everything started good with Van Benschoten getting the first two batters out,but then he hit Lance Berkman, walked Carlos Lee, and gave up a 3 run home run to Geoff Blum. After 3 straight singles and another run, Van Benschoten got the pitcher Brian Moehler to strike out to end the inning. Over the next 3 innings Van Benschoten didn’t give up anymore runs but he managed to walk 5 more batters. Those 6 walks to a team(Astros) that has the lowest amount of walks in baseball will tell the tale for John Van Benschoten, his control issues have not been solved. It is a shame that he cannot take advantage of these opportunities, and you wonder how many more he is going to get.

Nate McLouth padded his lead in doubles over Lance Berkman with 3 tonight, scoring 2 of the 4 runs. Jason Bay and Jack Wilson each kicked in doubles of their own, with Xavier Nady legging out a triple. On the night, the Pirates scored 4 runs on 8 hits, 6 of those hits went for extra bases. The Pirates were able to battle back and tie the game in the bottom of the 5th with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Freddy Sanchez, but that would be the last of the runs as the Astros bullpen shut down the Pirates for the rest of the night.