Hunter Pence added a solo home run as the Astros won the final two games of the three-game series. Before that, they’d lost five straight during a 1-6 start, their worst in 25 seasons.
Berkman left the bases loaded by flying out in the fourth inning with the score tied at 3. He made up for it with a drive into the left-field seats in the sixth off reliever Sean Burnett (0-1), who retired two batters before Michael Bourn doubled and Miguel Tejada walked - one of seven walks the Astros drew off six Pirates pitchers.
Berkman’s average was down to .200 before he hit his second homer of the year, a drive on a 1-2 pitch that came four innings after Pence homered off a left-field catwalk, his third, to get the Astros going against Pirates starter Jeff Karstens.
They also scored an inning later on two walks, Bourn’s stolen base and a groundout, and again in the fourth when Jeff Keppinger tripled and starting pitcher Russ Ortiz singled.
Ortiz didn’t pitch long enough to get the decision in his first start since Aug. 20, 2007, giving up five hits and three runs in 4 2/3 innings. He sat out last season after reconstructive elbow surgery.
Wesley Wright (1-0) got the victory by retiring the only batter he faced in the sixth.
The Pirates scored their three runs off Ortiz in the first two innings. Nyjer Morgan and Adam LaRoche doubled in the first and Ortiz threw a run-scoring wild pitch, and Morgan followed with an RBI triple in the second. After that, five Houston pitchers finished up with seven consecutive scoreless innings.
