PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates, playing the final home game of a record-tying 16th consecutive losing season, only wish they could have a September or October to rival Roy Oswalt's.

Oswalt held the Pirates to one run over six innings to continue his strong second half and backup catcher Brad Ausmus drove in two runs to lead the Houston Astros beat Pittsburgh 6-2 on Sunday.

Miguel Tejada had three hits and an RBI as the Astros took two of three for their first series win since Hurricane Ike forced two key games against the Cubs to be hastily moved to Milwaukee. The Astros lost six of seven after that and are four games down in the NL wild card race with at least six to play — they'll play a seventh game, a makeup against Chicago on Sept. 29, only if they remain in contention.

"We'll play one day at a time and hope we get some help," Ausmus said before the Astros went home for series against the Reds and Braves.

The Pirates finished 39-42 at PNC Park, the seventh time in eight seasons they didn't have a winning record there. Despite their 64-91 overall record with six to play, first-year manager John Russell sees progress from a mostly young team that is 14-33 since top offensive players Jason Bay and Xavier Nady were traded the final week of July.

"Win or lose, you know our guys are going to still give the effort and give us something to look forward to next season," he said.