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Snell shuts down Reds as Pirates win fifth straight

Apr 28, 2007 - 4:13 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Ian Snell finally got some run support and made it stand.

Snell continued his great start with seven scoreless innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates extended their winning streak to five games with a 3-1 victory over the struggling Cincinnati Reds.

Jack Wilson, Brad Eldred and Ronny Paulino each had two hits each for Pittsburgh, which last won five straight in April during the 2002 season.

"Regardless of anything that's happened in the past, it's definitely a big thing to get on a good streak like that early in the season," Eldred said. "You want to get things rolling early on just to set the tone for the season. It's nice to have the little streak now and hopefully we just keep going with it."

Despite just one win in his first four starts, Snell (2-1) had not allowed more than two runs in any start and entered with a 2.00 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 27 innings. The Pirates scored a total of nine runs in those starts.

"(The win) is nice, it's been a long time coming but it happens," Snell said. "It's baseball and it's crazy so I don't get frustrated. Sometimes it bothers you that you should have won some games, but, hey, it's baseball."

Pittsburgh got three runs in the first inning against the Reds - matching the most it had scored in any one game for the righthander - and Snell made it stand with his best outing of the season.

The 25-year-old allowed six hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts. He threw 65 of 100 pitches for strikes. Snell retired counterpart Eric Milton with the bases loaded and two outs in the second and worked around a pair of leadoff singles in the seventh.

"We're not scoring a lot of runs and if you're not scoring a lot of runs then your pitching department better be pretty good," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "And what they're getting to work with, they're making it stand up."

Damaso Marte worked around Josh Hamilton's single in the eighth and Salomon Torres yielded a leadoff homer to Adam Dunn, his first since April 10, before notching his seventh save.

Coming off a three-game home sweep against Houston, Pittsburgh started fast against Milton. With the entire team wearing No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, Chris Duffy singled, Wilson walked and both moved up on a wild pitch.

After Freddy Sanchez grounded out, Jason Bay doubled in two runs. Bay entered 12-for-31 with eight RBI in his last eight games. He is a .435 (10-for-23) career hitter against Milton with three homers and nine RBI.

"I've seen it before," Milton said of Bay's jolt. "I haven't had much success against Bay in the past."

Eldred followed Bay with a single and Adam LaRoche made it 3-0 with a single up the middle, just his second hit in 18 at-bats against a lefthanded pitcher this season.

"I felt really good today," LaRoche said. "Even my ground-ball outs, I felt like I was right on it. It's coming and it does feel a lot better."

Milton (0-4) surrendered three runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings to drop to 1-6 in 12 career starts against Pittsburgh. In his first three outings in 2007, the lefthander yielded 10 runs and 19 hits in 16 2/3 innings.

"Things haven't gone my way these first four starts," Milton said. "It's something you've got to fight through. It's baseball, and the ball bounces crazy ways, so you just never know."

Scott Hatteberg and Alex Gonzalez had two hits each for the Reds, who have lost seven of nine games. "It seems like other ballcllubs are getting hits when they need them and we haven't,"

Cincinnati manager Jerry Narron said. "It was nice to see us get nine hits. I felt we swung the bats better at times tonight, we just didn't get anything to fall."

Ken Griffey Jr. sat out his second straight game with a chest problem. Prior to the game, he had an X-ray which came back normal. Griffey has been diagnosed with pleurisy (inflammation of the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs) and is day-to-day.