<p>The Houston Astros made the most of their hits.</p><p>Andy Pettitte won a pitching duel with Russ Ortiz and the first-place Astros defeated the Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Sunday, scoring the tiebreaking run when backup Orlando Palmeiro walked with the bases loaded.</p><p>Pettitte (3-1) allowed just two hits and a run in six innings. He has won all three starts since coming off the disabled list and improved to 4-0 in his career against the Braves, who lost for the fourth time in five games.</p><p>Houston is heading in the opposite direction. The Astros have won nine of 11 and lead what figures to be a hotly contested race in the NL Central.</p><p>This was quite a pitching duel. Each team had only three hits.</p><p>Ortiz (3-4) was the hard-luck loser, giving up only one legitimate hit in 6 2-3 innings. Morgan Ensberg kept the seventh going with a two-out single up the middle. Ortiz walked the next two to run his pitch count to 133.</p><p>Manager Bobby Cox decided to make a change, bringing on Kevin Gryboski to face Palmeiro with the bases loaded. Palmeiro, filling in for Craig Biggio, fell behind 1-2 in the count, then took three straight balls to drive in the run.</p><p>Ortiz, watching from the dugout, buried his hands in his head as Ensberg trotted home.</p><p>Pettitte didn't allow a hit until the fourth, when the Braves struck for their only run with two outs. J.D. Drew went the opposite way for a double, and Johnny Estrada followed with another two-bagger to the gap in left-center.</p><p>Jesse Garcia had the only other hit for the Braves, blooping a single down the right-field line and taking second when Richard Hidalgo kicked the away.</p><p>But Dan Micelli, who worked two scoreless innings, got out of the jam by retiring Adam LaRoche and Mark DeRosa on easy grounders. Octavio Dotel pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save.</p><p>Ortiz retired the first 12 Houston hitters before Jeff Kent led off the fifth with a bad-hop double. The ball took a wicked bounce off the shoulder of shortstop Wilson Betemit and rolled into short left field.</p><p>It wasn't a good inning for Betemit, called up from a minors a day earlier because of injuries to infielders Rafael Furcal and Marcus Giles.</p><p>With one out, Betemit made a horrible decision on a routine grounder, attempting to throw out Kent at third instead of taking the easy play at first. Kent beat the tag and wound up scoring on Brad Ausmus' sacrifice fly, which should've been the third out.</p><p>Notes:@ Braves LF Chipper Jones is 0-for-6 with four strikeouts since coming off the disabled list. ... Biggio didn't play, following his normal routine of taking off when a day game follows a night game. ... The Astros struck out 11 times.</p>
