Saturday, May 26, 2007
Xavier Nady beats the throw to catcher Chad Moeller to score one of the Pirates' eight runs in the 10th inning last night against the Cincinnati Reds.
By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
CINCINNATI -- It took more than nine innings for manager Jim Tracy's pregame words to bear fruit last night.
But when the Pirates acted on Tracy's message, they produced a bumper crop of runs.
Tracy, whose team stagnated offensively while it lost three games in St. Louis, addressed his squad for about 15 minutes before it went out to stretch.
The message had to do with regrouping from a five-game losing streak.
That streak ended in a large way in the 10th inning, during which the Pirates poured across eight runs and rocked reeling Cincinnati, 10-4.
It was the most productive inning for the Pirates since they scored nine runs in the second inning in an 11-0 victory in Montreal July 9, 2004.
So how does something like that happen?
"Nothing happened," said Jack Wilson, whose leadoff single began the inning and whose run-scoring single seemingly moments later ended the Pirates' scoring. "It's just baseball. It was a combination of us having good at-bats and them not catching the ball.
"People try to read too much into stuff like that. The balls are going to fall."
And fall they did after Wilson's ground-ball single to left began the 10th off usually reliable David Weathers.
Pirates trainer Brad Henderson checks Ryan Doumit after Doumit was hit in the head with a bat.
Pinch-hitter Nate McLouth dropped a bunt just in front of the plate. Wilson got a great break from first base, but Cincinnati catcher Chad Moeller opted to throw to second anyway.
"I didn't expect them to throw to second -- not with Jack running," McLouth said.
Wilson was safe by a wide margin, bringing up Jose Bautista, who put a soft single into short left field, loading the bases.
Chris Duffy hit a sacrifice fly to right, and the Pirates forged ahead.
"After that, we just kept swinging," Ronny Paulino said.
And scoring. And scoring.
Freddy Sanchez drove a ground-rule double into left-center field, scoring McLouth. Adam LaRoche drew an intentional walk.
Weathers nicked Jason Bay with a pitch, forcing in the third run of the inning.
Brad Salmon relieved an irritated Weathers.
Paulino greeted Salmon with a two-run double just inside third on a 1-2 pitch.
"That one made the game one-sided," Paulino said.
Xavier Nady shot a run-scoring single through the middle.
When center fielder Ryan Freel erred on the throw to the plate, Paulino also scored. Wilson's single to center brought Nady home.
"Strange game," Nady said. "We had some guys have good at-bats. We'd been scavenging for runs. That was encouraging for us."
Cincinnati, the holder of the worst record in baseball at 18-31, has lost 14 of its past 18 games. The Reds are 0-9 when they are tied after seven innings.
The Pirates are 20-27.
"Are we disappointed with our record? Yes," Tracy said. "But we're better than we were this time a year ago."
The Pirates were 14-33 through 47 games last season.
The point seems to be that, while these Pirates are less worse off than last season, they do not appear to be appreciably better than that team.
"I think we all understand we're not playing up to our capabilities," Tracy said. "We're not executing up to our capability.
"When you're having trouble scoring runs and you let several run-scoring opportunities get away from you, then you hear that the club is 'listless,' and it's 'this' and it's 'that.' When you don't do your fair share of executing in those situations, that's the impression that's left. It's not necessarily the case, but it's certainly the impression."
The Pirates wasted Duffy's one-out double in the first but struck for two runs against nemesis Aaron Harang -- he is 10-3 lifetime against the Pirates -- in the second.
Bay drove Harang's first pitch into the right-center field bleachers.
One out later, Nady, hitting just .227 against right-handers at game time, lined a 1-1 pitch into the left-field seats.
Paul Maholm gave the Pirates exactly the kind of start they wanted from the left-hander. He pretty much cruised through seven innings, throwing 99 pitches, and allowed two runs -- back-to-back home runs by Ken Griffey Jr. and Brandon Phillips in the sixth.
Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit left the game after batting in the top of the fourth. He was struck on the back of his head by Freel's bat as the Cincinnati outfielder swung and bounced to short in the third.
The Pirates said Doumit felt dizzy and removed him for precautionary reasons. He went to a local hospital for a CAT scan, which showed no significant injury.
Doumit probably will not play tonight.
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