Friday, May 04, 2007
Pirates' Jose Bautista, second from left, receives high fives from his teammates after his two-run home run in the seventh inning against the Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee.
By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
MILWAUKEE -- The Pirates last night did something they had not done in 224 innings. They had a big inning.
Held to two hits by right-hander Dave Bush over the first six innings, the Pirates scored four times in the seventh inning and beat Milwaukee, 4-2.
The four-run burst matched their largest inning of the season. They also had a four-run rally in Houston in the fifth inning April 4.
It would not seem, though, that staging a four-run inning once every month is going to do much for the Pirates.
Brewers' Bill Hall is tagged out at home plate by Ronny Paulino in the fourth inning last night.
"Offensively, we have a whole lot of mountains to get over," manager Jim Tracy said, mindful his team has scored three runs or less in 14 of its 27 games.
Freddy Sanchez opened the seventh with a double into left-center field. Jason Bay's pop-fly double into short right field on a 3-2 pitch got Sanchez home, halving a 2-0 Milwaukee lead.
"Jason Bay battled through a tough at-bat and flipped it into right field," Tracy said.
After Ryan Doumit bounced to third and Xavier Nady lined softly to first base, Jose Bautista drove a 1-1 pitch into the seats in left field for his second home run.
"A terrific at-bat," Tracy said.
Two pitches later, Ronny Paulino sent his third home run over the right-center field wall.
It was the first time the Pirates had hit back-to-back homers since Aug. 13, when Bay and Joe Randa homered against Jason Marquis of St. Louis.
"Our opportunity to win was a direct result of a couple of good at-bats," Tracy said. "But what put that together was the job our starter did. If [the Brewers] put up any more runs, I don't think that opportunity has a chance to happen."
Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny battled the Brewers well in his seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs and earned his fourth victory.
"Just another terrific performance," Tracy said.
After Matt Capps pitched a perfect eighth, Salomon Torres brushed aside a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins in the ninth and pocketed his ninth save.
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the third when Bush's one-out bouncer rolled down the left-field line for a double. After Rickie Weeks popped to shortstop, J.J. Hardy walked on five pitches. Prince Fielder, however, bounced a 2-2 pitch past a diving Sanchez and into center field for a run-scoring single.
On the first pitch to cleanup hitter Bill Hall, the Brewers inexplicably tried to "steal" a run. Fielder broke for second, and Paulino threw to second as Hardy charged for the plate. Sanchez's return throw nailed Hardy.
Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said Fielder ran on his own.
Whatever, the Brewers could not get another runner in from third base in the fourth.
Hall's infield hit -- on a smash behind third base on which Bautista made a fine stop -- and a wild pitch put a runner on second with no outs. Hall moved to third on Johnny Estrada's ground ball to second.
With the Pirates' infield playing in, Kevin Mench bounced sharply to Wilson, who threw out Hall at the plate. Milwaukee scored a second run in the sixth after Hardy's leadoff double to right-center field that extended his career-high hitting streak to 14 games. Fielder's fly to right moved Hardy to third.
The Pirates again brought their infield in, but it mattered not. They had nobody playing behind Paulino. Gorzelanny's first pitch to Hall was high and outside and skipped off the lunging Paulino's glove, permitting Hardy to score.
The victory was just the second in the past six games for the Pirates.
"I think we're doing a tremendous job of weathering a situation that we know is not yet where we want it to be," Tracy said. "There are some inconsistencies with our game right now. We've done a nice job of keeping our heads afloat. I'm very anxious to see what we look like as a ball club when we get a few guys untracked offensively. We haven't seen much of that.
"Pitching-wise the past week, we've had some ups and downs. We've had a few bumpy starts."
That the Brewers are a solid team is no surprise to the Pirates. And shouldn't be to anybody else.
"You saw it coming the last couple years -- that they were on the verge of doing some good things," Sanchez said.
"Obviously, they're a much-improved team," Tracy said. "But we feel our team has improved some, too."
(Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.)
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