HOUSTON (AP) -- Andy Pettitte wouldn't get too excited over his

first win since last July.

Pettitte pitched seven strong innings, Willy Taveras had an RBI

triple and the Houston Astros held on for an 8-7 victory over the

Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night.

Pettitte (1-1), who had season-ending elbow surgery Aug. 13,

scattered five hits, gave up three runs and struck out five in his

fourth start of the season. He last won on July 21 against Arizona.

It was also the left-hander's first home win since beating the Mets

on May 15.

"Everybody else had a win so I was starting to get a little

grouchy," Pettitte said. "It was nice to get the first win on the

board after my surgery, but I gave up that home run to [Geoff]

Jenkins on a bad pitch. I'm just still dealing with a lot of stuff

with my arm. I'm not close to being there. My first few starts, I

would tighten up early and then loosen up later in the game.

Tonight, I tightened up later."

Pettitte originally hurt his elbow batting in his Astros debut

last year, his first in Houston after nine seasons with the New

York Yankees. On Thursday, he had a sacrifice fly to give the

Astros a 6-1 lead.

Astros manager Phil Garner certainly had no complaints.

"Andy pitched well," Garner said. "He had better velocity

this time, though perhaps his control wasn't as good. But I'm glad

to see him get a win. He has been throwing well this year. He could

very easily have won all of his games."

Trailing 8-3 in the ninth the Brewers rallied for four runs,

highlighted by Brady Clark's three-run homer off closer Brad Lidge

with two outs. Lidge, who was called on to face Clark, then struck

out Junior Spivey for his fifth save.

"As down as our team has been, there was definitely some

positives," shortstop J.J. Hardy said. "To get some runs off

their better pitchers, it was a great thing for Brady."

Manager Ned Yost agreed.

"There were some good signs out there tonight offensively,"

Yost said. "We're starting to show some signs of coming out. Not

many things are going our way but you see some bright side of the

tunnel with the they way we came back."

Doug Davis (2-2) went 5 1/3 innings and allowed six runs -- five

earned -- on five hits and four walks for Milwaukee. He struck out

four.

Davis loaded the bases in the fourth inning with no outs before

getting Chris Burke to pop out for the first out. Brad Ausmus then

hit an easy grounder to third baseman Wes Helms, whose throw to

second went into center field for an error and gave Houston its

first two runs.

Milwaukee got a run back in the fifth inning when Jenkins

doubled off the center-field wall, went to third on a groundout and

scored on Helms' grounder to third.

The Astros scored four in the sixth inning to go up 6-1. Burke

had an RBI double, Ausmus a run-scoring single, Taveras an RBI

triple that chased Davis and Pettitte added a sacrifice fly off

reliever Wes Obermueller.

Jenkins hit a two-run homer into the Crawford boxes in left in

the seventh inning to close it to 6-3. Jenkins finished 2-for-3

with three runs.

Ensberg's RBI single to left stretched the lead to 7-3 in the

seventh and Craig Biggio was hit by a pitch from Matt Wise with the

bases loaded in the eighth to make it 8-3.Game notes
Adam Everett left the game in the eighth inning with a mild

strain of his left hamstring. He is day to day. ... It was the

first time Pettitte faced the Brewers since shutting them out April

22, 1997. ... After not having a left-handed relief performance in

2004, the Brewers have 12 this season, six by Tommy Phelps and six

by Jorge De La Rosa, including his appearance Thursday. ... Jeff

Bagwell went 0-for-2 against Davis and is 2-for-23 lifetime against

him.