HOUSTON - Craig Wilson ended a long slump - at the Houston Astros' expense.

Wilson was 4-for-4 with a tiebreaking, eighth-inning single in the Pittsburgh Pirates' 7-4 victory over the Astros on Tuesday night

"Craig has started coming on. He's looked good in batting practice and now he's carried it over into a game," Pittsburgh manager Lloyd McClendon said. "He's the type of a guy who can carry us 10 or 12 games at a time."

Wilson entered the game 10-for-51.

"I don't think I've been as bad as the numbers show, I just got off to a bad start. It felt good to finally hit a ball hard," Wilson said.

He had difficulty explaining his history as streaky hitter.

"If I had an explanation I would shorten the streaks and drink the potion and bottle it," Wilson said. "The only difference is when your hitting good the ball seems to find a hole and when your going bad those plays are made."

With the score 4-all, singles by Rob Mackowiak and Jason Bay and a walk to Daryle Ward loaded the bases with no outs for Wilson, who singled to left off Chad Qualls (1-3). Bobby Hill followed with a two-run double.

"We just had a few bad hops, but that's baseball. It could have gone either way," Qualls said. "I felt real strong. I felt as good as I have ever felt."

Rick White (1-2) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings, and Jose Mesa worked the ninth for his ninth save in nine chances. Mesa has saved every win by the Pirates (9-16), who outhit Houston 14-11 and stopped a four-game losing streak.

"He may end up with 82 saves, but I would just like to have a couple of easy ones," McClendon said.

Ezequiel Astacio made his major league debut for Houston, which had won three in a row, and gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings. The 25-year-old right-hander struck out six and walked one with a balk and a wild pitch.

"The first inning I felt pretty nervous, but after that I got in a groove and I felt good," Astacio said. "It wasn't an excellent outing, but I know that I'm going to improve,"

Pittsburgh starter Kip Wells gave up four runs - three earned - and nine hits in six innings.

Craig Biggio and Mike Lamb hit RBI doubles in the first for Houston, but Pittsburgh took a 3-2 lead in the third. Jack Wilson hit his first home run this tear, and Mackowiak hit an RBI double and scored on Ward's single.

Morgan Ensberg tied the score with a run-scoring single in the bottom half. Craig Wilson's sixth-inning homer put Pittsburgh ahead 4-3, but Biggio hit an RBI single in the bottom half.

Notes:

Biggio has 574 doubles to tie Charlie Gehringer for 16th on the career list. ... Ensberg has reached base in 10 of his last 13 at-bats. ... Pittsburgh has lost 20 of its last 23 games at Minute Maid Park.