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(Sports Network) - Right-hander Brandon Backe aims for career win No. 5 against Pittsburgh tonight, when the Houston Astros head to PNC Park for the finale of a three-game series with the host Pirates.

Backe is 4-1 with a 2.86 earned run average in eight lifetime meetings with the Pirates, including five starts. He has walked 16 and struck out 23 Pirates, while holding them to an anemic .174 batting average.

The 30-year-old Texan saw a two-start win streak come to an end in his last start on May 30, when he dropped a 5-1 decision to Milwaukee at Miller Park. In that game Backe allowed six hits and five runs in five innings.

Previously, he had beaten Texas and Philadelphia on May 18 and May 23, combining to allow 11 hits and four runs in 13 2/3 innings.

Pittsburgh lefty Paul Maholm was a winner in his last start, scattering four hits and allowing one run over 6 2/3 innings of a 14-4 rout of St. Louis at Busch Stadium.

He struck out five and walked none in the Busch Stadium outing, dropping his ERA for the season to 4.74 from 5.11.

Maholm had gone five starts without a win prior to that victory, including losses to Washington, St. Louis and Milwaukee earlier in May.

He is 3-3 in seven lifetime starts against the Astros with a 6.23 ERA in 39 innings.

On Wednesday, Zach Duke pitched well into the eighth inning, as the Pirates downed the Astros, 5-2.

Duke (3-4) scattered seven hits and two runs over 7 2/3 innings, fanning two and walking two for the Pirates, who have split their last six games. Raul Chavez had a two-run single and a sacrifice fly for Pittsburgh.

Roy Oswalt (4-6) was touched for nine hits and four runs over six innings, with four strikeouts and a walk. Ty Wigginton homered for Houston, which has dropped six of seven games.

Pittsburgh won 10 of its 15 matchups with the Astros last season.