The last place Houston Astros continued their torrid home run hitting and took over the National League lead in homers with 188 by blasting six for the second time in four days at Enron Field. The final score of Atros 11 and Pirates 10 seemed not to matter to the 30,165 fans, it was the hammering of baseball's "rapid-ball" that produced most of the cheers of hometown crowd.

The Astros, who were always pitching rich and power poor in their old ballpark, put on another compelling display of home run hitting. Right-fielder Moises Alou hit his fifth homer in his last four games (23rd of year) and Astros' starting pitcher Scott Elarton seemed the happiest of all. He collected the win and ran his record to 13-4, even though he gave up 8-hits, 5-runs in 7 1/3 innings. Reliever Octavio Dotel collected his 7th save of the year - 1 inning, 2-hits, 1-run.

And here's the list of homers hit - Astros, Logo 2B (4), Alou RF (23), Bogar SS (3), Truby 3B (7), Jeff Bagwell 1B (35), Berkman LF (17)

Pirates, Aramis Ramirez ph (3), Brian Giles LF (28)

The Houston Astros are 48-73 for the year, 18 1/2 out of first in the NL Central. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 49-70, in 5th place, 2 games ahead of the Astros.

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