Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Oliver Perez threw a dominating eight innings yesterday, but the bullpen couldn't hold the lead. Click photo for larger image. Today Matchup: Pirates (Zach Duke 2-6) vs. Brewers (Doug Davis 3-3), 7:05 p.m. Where: PNC Park TV/Radio: FSN Pittsburgh/KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. Related articles A night ... and a morning ... that the Pirates never will forget Pirates Notebook: Vogelsong perseveres, performs in long-relief Pirates Scouting Report: Milwaukee Brewers Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Astros box score Game play-by-play

It was not so much the blown save that had Mike Gonzalez kicking himself.

Nor that the Pirates, a few hours removed from the season's highest high, experienced its lowest low in flushing away a four-run lead in the ninth inning and falling in the 10th, 5-4, to the Houston Astros yesterday at PNC Park.

No, what troubled Gonzalez most was that a spectacular afternoon for Oliver Perez was rendered moot.

"That's the thing, man," he said. "Ollie threw such a great game, and all I wanted to do was finish it for him. I just didn't do the job, and I'm disgusted about it."

The table certainly had been set, heading into the ninth, for the Pirates to extend the celebratory crescendo that came with the 8-7, 18-inning triumph Saturday night.

Perez rode a crisp changeup, a swinging slider and finely located 93-mph fastballs on his way to eight shutout innings, striking out nine while allowing three hits.

Jason Bay extended his home run streak to six games, two shy of Major League Baseball's record, in the fourth.

Jose Bautista lined a three-run shot to left in the seventh for a 4-0 cushion that the Pirates would take into the ninth.

And then ...

Manager Jim Tracy decided to send Perez back to the mound, even though Houston's hottest hitters, Morgan Ensberg and Mike Lamb, were due up. And even though Perez's pitch count was at 120, six shy of his career high -- set as a rookie in 2002 -- and eight more than in any start this season.

Ensberg and Lamb were a combined 0 for 6 with five strikeouts to that point, but each singled to spark the Astros.

It was then that Tracy pulled Perez, his pitch count peaking at a fresh career high of 127, and brought in Gonzalez.

Preston Wilson singled to load the bases, and Jason Lane walked on four pitches for one run. Eric Bruntlett singled for another. One out later, bases still filled, Willy Taveras walked to cut Houston's deficit to 4-3.

That was it for Gonzalez.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about using Perez that inning, Tracy began his response by pointing to Gonzalez's lack of control: "Well, when you see what took place after [Perez] left ..."

He then discussed Perez.

"When you see the way the guy was overwhelming the opposition and the way he had gotten Mike Lamb out all day long. You know, Lamb just stuck his bat out there and lifted a flair over Jack Wilson's head. [Perez] was throwing the ball too well. He was throwing too well to take him out."

Perez, asked if he had been surprised to return for the ninth, said he was prepared either way.

"I was just waiting for them to tell me if I'm going in or out."

And how did his arm feel?

"Sometimes, you have to find your strength."

Tracy was critical of Gonzalez, who pitched two dominant innings the previous night and had limited opponents to just two runs in his previous 16 outings.

"When you walk people, it's going to hurt bad," Tracy said. "The base on balls killed us."

Salomon Torres replaced Gonzalez and allowed Brad Ausmus' sacrifice fly that tied the score at 4-4.

He then opened the 10th by allowing singles to Ensberg, Lamb and Wilson, the latter a grounder up the middle that drove in the decisive run.

That marked the Pirates' first loss when leading after seven, and it blew a golden chance for their first three-game sweep since July 2004.

It greatly overshadowed, too, the efforts of Perez and Bay.

Perez delivered a third consecutive quality start since having his spot skipped in the rotation earlier this month. He has been charged with a total of four earned runs in 20 innings in that span.

"I wasn't around here a couple years ago when he had the great season," Tracy said. "But I don't know if there was any game he could have pitched much better than today."

"I feel like I'm getting better every time," Perez said.

Bay, meanwhile, continued marching toward history.

With one out in the fourth, he hammered Fernando Nieve's 0-1 fastball into the bullpen beyond center field for his 16th home run, his team-record 11th in May and his 10th in as many games. He is the first player to achieve the latter since Sammy Sosa and Shawn Green each did it in 2002.

The crowd of 24,992 recognized the achievement by receiving a curtain call, the second day in a row for that one-time Pittsburgh rarity.

"I still can't explain it," Bay said of his tear. "I just keep getting pitches to hit, and I'm hitting them."

He sounded far less than satisfied with the outcome, though.

"It's brutal, really. To lose that game ... it hurts."