On 2 1/2 hours sleep, Ryan Doumit yesterday handled five pitchers, caught 172 pitches, went 2 for 4 with a two-run single in the eighth inning and settled into a Pirates spot he wants to maintain.

	MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT Thursday's results INDIANAPOLIS (11-7) was off. ALTOONA (8-9) lost to Bowie, 7-2. RHP Alay Soler (1-0, 2.25) allowed two runs in six innings. RHP Romulo Sanchez (2.45) pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. CF Andrew McCutchen (.197) went 1 for 4. 3B Neil Walker (.274) went 0 for 3 with a walk. LYNCHBURG (7-9) lost at Kinston, 10-5. RHP Blair Johnson (1-1, 8.00) allowed five runs in two-thirds of an inning. 1B Steve Pearce (.311) extended his streak of hitting a home run to five consecutive games with his eighth of the season. He has six in 20 at-bats during the streak. He went 2 for 4 with a walk and two RBIs, homering in his final at-bat. HICKORY (7-11) lost at Greensboro, 9-2. RHP Yoffri Martinez (0-1, 10.29) allowed five runs on two hits and seven walks in 2 1/3 innings. LHP Mike Felix (12.46) allowed a run and walked three in two-thirds of an inning of relief. CF James Boone (.324) went 2 for 3 with a walk and an RBI.

"It's just great to be back here," Doumit said following a 5-3 Pirates victory that came just hours after he was recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis to replace backup catcher Humberto Cota, who yesterday was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left shoulder.

Doumit got the call from the parent club around 1:45 a.m. yesterday, not long after Ronny Paulino caught all 16 innings of the Pirates' 4-3 triumph against Houston finished at midnight Wednesday. He boarded a 6:25 a.m. flight to Pittsburgh and found himself starting and batting No. 7 for a game that began at 12:39 p.m.

"Just going on emotion right now," Doumit said. "I'm exhausted. I'm going home and sleep for 15 hours."

He wasn't going to receive much sympathy from the rest of the Pirates, who got a 10-hour break between the games late Wednesday and lunchtime yesterday. Yet this veteran of two major-league seasons, a fellow who started this season with the club until being sent to Indianapolis April 7 for a daily diet of catching and at-bats, wound up supplying some spark. To open the third, he rapped a roller that bounced off third base and ambled into short left field for a double -- though he was stranded there. Then, in the eighth, he hit a two-strike single to right to score the Pirates' final two runs, which proved to be their margin of victory.

"Tremendous job," crowed manager Jim Tracy. "You know what? He caught a good game and called a good game, too. He battled [at the plate]. He took some pitches. Then, he drove the line-drive single over [Houston second baseman [Mark] Loretta's head."

Added Doumit, "It's always nice to contribute. Right now, things are going well for me."

True, he returns having just won the International League batter of the week and leading that league with a .415 average, 20 doubles and a .717 slugging percentage. He also collected four home runs and 20 RBIs with Indianapolis.

"This is as powerful a message a player can send," Tracy said of Doumit's three-week response to being demoted. "To go out there and do it in the manner he did it, kudos to him."

"Will it happen? I'm not 100 percent certain," Tracy said. "Will I entertain the thought? Absolutely. Offense is something obviously we want to get untracked here. Our pitching staff is doing a terrific job, and they don't have a lot of room for error right now. Minimal."

LaRoche dropped to 6th

Adam LaRoche batted No. 6 in the lineup for only the second time this season. It worked. The day after registering his first hit this season at PNC Park -- the game-winning single to end that 16-inning contest -- LaRoche recorded his first hit this season off a left-hander. He singled to right field in the fifth inning off Wandy Rodriguez, ending an 0 for 15 stretch that included seven strikeouts against lefties.

"It's a start," said LaRoche, who hiked his average from .092 just before his game-winner Wednesday to .114 after the game yesterday. As for his near grand slam in the eighth yesterday, when the ball plopped into the Allegheny River but was several feet foul: "I figured with the wind blowing like that and my luck right now, there was no way it was staying fair."

Buried treasure

Zach Duke entered Wednesday with a 9.00 ERA, then allowed Houston a run in the first inning. After that, though, he cruised: seven innings, six hits, one earned run, one walk, one strikeout. "He got better as the game went on," Tracy said. "His stuff got better, the life of his fastball. He found something. I saw a better pitcher in the fifth and sixth than I saw in the first four."

With Freddy Sanchez's vision blurred in his right eye, Xavier Nady still a day or two away due to a balky hamstring and Cota ailing, the Pirates' bench was depleted early in extra innings Wednesday. "We used the two we could use," Tracy said of Don Kelly of Mt. Lebanon High School and Point Park plus Nate McLouth. That bench was somewhat less thin yesterday, when Sanchez returned, but Tracy was forced to send Nady to pinch-hit in an eighth-inning, bases-loaded situation that called for a flyball -- but Nady got hit by a pitch. Pitcher Ian Snell pinch-ran for him.