HOUSTON — When Drew Sutton reached third base in the ninth inning with the game tied, he told Pittsburgh third base coach Nick Leyva that Houston’s Xavier Cedeno might bounce a curveball after seeing how much break it had on it earlier in the inning.

Cedeno did just that on the next pitch and Sutton was ready, dashing home on the wild pitch to propel the Pirates to a 6-5 win over the hapless Houston Astros on Friday night.

“When guys have big breaking balls like that sometimes they have the tendency to overthrow them in big situations and you’ve just got to take advantage,” Sutton said. “In a close game like that it usually comes down to little stuff like that and I’m glad I thought about it, the pitch, before. I got a good break on it and it worked out.”

The loss was Houston’s 11th straight, tying the franchise record for most consecutive losses in a season. The Astros, who have baseball’s worst record (34-67), last lost 11 straight in 1995. They have lost 24 of their last 26 games.

“We have to (be level-headed),” Houston’s Chris Johnson said. “If you get down, it’s just going to get worse.”

The Astros led 5-4 entering the ninth inning before rookie Starling Marte’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly tied it up, and the wild pitch got away from catcher Chris Snyder to allow Sutton to score and extend Houston’s misery.

It was the third time in the last four games that Houston has lost after entering the ninth inning with a lead.

“Having the lead in three of the last four games is tough, there’s no doubt,” Astros manager Brad Mill said. “And it beats up on everybody, but these guys have been battling so well all the way through, and I’m sure they’re going to come out tomorrow and do the same thing.”

Tony Watson (5-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win and Joel Hanrahan did the same in the ninth for his major league-leading 31st save.

Alex Presley hit a solo home run for Pittsburgh in the fourth and Michael McKenry, who finished with three hits, connected on a two-run shot in the fifth.

Johnson finished a single short of the cycle and Ben Francisco had a solo homer and drove in two runs for the Astros.

The game was tied at 4-all when Johnson tripled on a ball that rolled up the corner of Tal’s Hill in center field with no outs in the seventh. J.D. Martinez’s one-out grounder to left field sent Johnson home to put Houston on top.

Johnson doubled in the first inning and had a solo homer in the third before his seventh-inning triple. Johnson walked in the fifth inning, but struck out in his last at-bat in the eighth.

Rhiner Cruz (1-1) came in for Houston with one out in the ninth inning. McKenry singled before Cruz issued consecutive walks to load the bases for Marte’s sacrifice fly off Cedeno.