The Houston Astros defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-4 last night. They picked up another game in their division race thanks to St. Louis losing 7-5 to the Padres. That makes 7 games the Astros have made up in as many games. They are on the verge of completing a great comeback. The Astros are 1.5 games out in the NL Central with just a handful of games left.

The Astros won last night behind solid pitching from Andy Pettitte. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 3 runs over 10 hits. He allowed 2 home runs as well. Pettitte is 14-13 on the season and will have one more start for the Astros. They have 5 games left to play.

The Pirates are playing for pride if anything. They did manage to get 12 hits—same as Houston—but they could only churn out 4 runs. They left 10 men on base. Snell gets the loss for the Pirates and he’s now 14-11 on the season. He pitched just 5 innings giving up 4 earned runs over 7 hits and 3 walks. The Pirates also gave up 2 unearned runs while he was on the mound.

The Astros are now 79-78 and 1.5 games behind the 80-76 Cardinals. The NL West is up for grabs. The next two games for both teams will be critical and probably will decide the division.