The Pirates ended three dry spells Sunday in their 9-0 rout of the Houston Astros.
Left-hander Paul Maholm tossed a three-hitter and notched his first shutout in more than three years
"It's been awhile since I've had one," said Maholm, who threw 103 pitches. "At that pitch count, I would've stayed out there until 130 (pitches) to finish it off."
The Pirates finally hit a multi-run homer — Garrett Jones' two-run blast in the fifth — ending a stretch of solo shots that began in early June.
"Wow, it's been that long?" Jones marveled.
And the Pirates beat Astros ace Roy Oswalt, who has tormented them throughout his brilliant career. Oswalt gave up two runs before leaving with an ankle injury.
"A game like this lets the guys know what they're capable of doing," Pirates manager John Russell said. "It's a good building block for these young guys. When we're aggressive and swing the bats, we can do some damage."
Maholm (6-7) notched his fourth complete game, all of them coming at PNC Park. The lefty allowed three hits and struck out one.
"He was mixing pitches pretty well, that's for sure," Astros manager Brad Mills said. "We thought a pitch was going to be in a location when we started our swing, but all of the sudden, it wasn't there. He kept the ball off the barrel of the bat almost all day long."
It was Maholm's second straight strong start after an eight-run wipeout July 3 against Philadelphia.
"I think his confidence is back," Russell said.
Oswalt (6-11) left the game after four innings after being hit on the left ankle by Pedro Alvarez's line drive. Oswalt had won four of his previous five starts against the Pirates. On July 8, he held them to one hit in a complete-game, 2-0 win.
"He seemed a little sharper last time," Jones said. "He left more balls over the plate for us to hit today. Last time, he was more on the corners and his fastball seemed more explosive. Today, he made a few more mistakes than he usually does."
The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the second inning with four straight hits off Oswalt. Ryan Doumit had an RBI double, and Lastings Milledge got a run-scoring single.
Jones smacked a two-run home run to right-center field in the fifth inning. It was the Pirates' first multi-run homer since Delwyn Young hit a two-run shot June 8 off Stephen Strasburg — a string of 1,097 at-bats with nothing but solo homers.
It was the longest such streak since 1984, when the Astros went 1,252 at-bats with nothing but solo shots.
"The home runs will come every now and then," Jones said. "But our game is going gap-to-gap, driving the ball, get guys over. We don't wait for a long ball."
Ronny Cedeno went 4 for 4, including three doubles. It was his second career four-hit game. Over his past four games, all starts, Cedeno is 9 for 15 with five doubles, one RBI and five runs scored.
"For me, it's a great day," Cedeno said. "We've been playing good offensively, defensively and pitching. We've got to keep it going."
The Pirates racked up a season-high 19 hits after getting 17 on Saturday night. It was their most hits in a game since getting 19 against the New York Yankees on June 24, 2008.
It also was the first time the Pirates had gotten 17-plus hits in back-to-back games since May 29-30, 2006, against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Seven of the hits were doubles. The previous time the Pirates had gotten seven doubles in a game was June 14, 2003, against Tampa Bay.
