HOUSTON -- Freddy Sanchez, Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit homered, the resuscitated offense mounted 11 hits in all, and Jose Bautista's amazing spear-and-throw highlighted some fine defense in an 8-2 humbling of the Houston Astros tonight at Minute Maid Park.

Meanwhile Paul Maholm ho-hummed his way through eight exemplary innings -- one run, five hits -- to improve to 5-1 in his past 10 starts, with a 3.18 ERA. He struck out five, walked one and was lifted before the ninth only because his pitch count was 108.

Sean Burnett gave up a run in the ninth.

Maholm is 7-6 with a 3.92 ERA and has worked at least six innings in 16 of his 20 starts.

Houston sent a fresh minor league recall, Jack Cassel, to the mound.

In the first inning, Freddy Sanchez, looking more like himself by the day, rapped Cassel's first-pitch fastball over the tall wall in left-center for his seventh home run. Second base umpire Tim Timmons initially ruled a double, but Russell succeeded in getting the entire crew to confer, and they then ruled it a home run. The ball apparently struck a metail railing just above the yellow stripe atop the wall.

Xavier Nady doubled to open the second and, after Adam LaRoche's single, scoredo on a groundout.

Nate McLouth's home run in the third inning, his 20th off a 1-1 fastball and into the bullpen beyond center, made it 3-0.

Bautista's gem, some of the Pirates' finest glovework of 2008, came in the fourth: Kazuo Matsui hit a high chopper that appeared certain to get over Bautista's head and down the left-field line. But he leaped to backhand it, twirled well into foul territory and fired an amazing throw that beat Matsui by two steps.

Even some partisans in the crowd of 33,996 applauded the effort.

Four more hits in the fifth chased Cassel, including RBI singles by Sanchez and Bay that made it 5-0.

Two innings later, Doumit's home run, his 12th and fourth from the right side, was a three-run moon shot that clanked off the base of the train tracks about 60 feet above the left-field boxes.

Ian Snell will pitch tomorrow afternoon as the Pirates go for their first series sweep since taking three from the San Francisco Giants May 6-8 and, remarkably, their first three-game winning streak since taking six in a row May 6-12.