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Friday, September 15, 2000

Associated Press
Chris Truby, front center, is mobbed by teammates after his
sacrifice fly scored the winning run in the
Astros' win over the Pirates.

Truby delivers in
Astros’ rally

---

Star-Bulletin wire services

HOUSTON -- With one swing, Chris Truby put his hitting slump behind him.

Truby, just 2-for-17 during Houston's homestand, hit a game-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth inning last night as the Astros overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-7.

"I've been kind of scuffling out there lately," Truby said. "I knew I needed to come up with something."

Truby, a rookie third baseman who played for the University of Hawaii a few years ago, hit a pitch from Brian O'Connor to center field to drive in Richard Hidalgo with the winning run.

"Truby was really hot when we were in Chicago last week," Astros manager Larry Dierker said. "But there's been a few times the last couple of days when he has come up with men on and not been able to get anybody in.

"But a game-winning RBI ought to boost his spirits."

Truby was called up June 16 when Ken Caminiti went on the disabled list with a season-ending wrist surgery. Truby is batting .264 with 43 RBIs, and has a shot at winning the third-base job next season.

"I wasn't thinking about that so much," Truby said. "You can't let yourself think about those things or it will put too much pressure on you. The more I worry about things like that, the worse I play. So I just try to go out and play."

Matt Skrmetta walked Hidalgo with one out in the ninth, Moises Alou singled and O'Connor walked Mitch Meluskey to load the bases. Truby then lofted a fly to center, and Meluskey scored easily.

ASTROS 8, PIRATES 7

PITTSBURGH					HOUSTON
	ab	r	h	bi			ab	r	h	bi
ABrown cf	5	0	2	1	Cedeno lf	5	1	2	0
Kendall c	4	0	1	0	Lugo 2b	5	0	1	0
Giles lf	1	2	0	0	Bagwell 1b	4	2	1	2
VanderWal rf	5	2	3	2	Hidalgo cf	1	2	0	0
KYoung 1b	5	1	1	3	Alou rf	4	1	2	0
WMorris 2b	4	1	1	0	Meluskey c	3	1	2	2
Skrmetta p	0	0	0	0	Truby 3b	4	1	1	2
O’Connor p	0	0	0	0	Bogar ss	3	0	1	0
Osik 3b	4	0	1	0	Holt p	2	0	0	0
ANunez ss	3	1	1	1	Green p	0	0	0	0
Loiselle p	0	0	0	0	Linebrink p	0	0	0	0
Sauerbeck p	0	0	0	0	Spiers ph	1	0	1	2
EWilson 2b	0	0	0	0	JosCabrera p	0	0	0	0
Arroyo p	1	0	0	0	Zosky ph	1	0	0	0
Wehner ph	1	0	1	0	Franklin p	0	0	0	0
Manzanillo p	0	0	0	0	Slusarski p	0	0	0	0
MWilkins p	0	0	0	0
Benjamin ss	1	0	1	0
Totals	34	7	12	7	Totals	33	8	11	8

Pittsburgh	000	331	000--7
Houston	012	003	101--8

Two outs when winning run scored.

E--Kendall (10). DP--Pittsburgh 1, Houston 2. LOB--Pittsburgh 8, Houston 9. 2B--Meluskey (18), Spiers (16). HR--Vander Wal (21), KYoung (18), Bagwell (44). SB--ABrown (11), Hidalgo 2 (10). CS--Kendall (12), WMorris (8), Cedeno (9). S--Manzanillo. SF--Meluskey, Truby.

Pittsburgh

	ip	h	r	er	bb	so
Arroyo	3	5	3	3	1	3
Manzanillo	2 2/3	4	3	3	0	3
MWilkins	1/3	1	0	0	0	0
Loiselle	1	0	1	1	3	1
Sauerbeck	1	0	0	0	0	1
Skrmetta L,1-1	1/3	1	1	1	1	0
O’Connor	1/3	0	0	0	1	0

Houston

Holt	4 1/3	9	6	6	3	2
Green	1	2	1	1	2	1
Linebrink	2/3	0	0	0	1	0
JosCabrera	2	1	0	0	0	2
Franklin	1/3	0	0	0	1	1
Slusarski W,2-6	2/3	0	0	0	0	2

Loiselle pitched to 1 batter in the 8th.

HBP--by Loiselle (Hidalgo), by Arroyo (Hidalgo). Balk--Sauerbeck.

T--3:50. A--36,740.