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Nady, Doumit belt three-run homers as Pirates romp

May 19, 2007 - 4:18 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Xavier Nady made his presence felt with both his bat and arm.

Nady homered and threw out a batter at the plate as the Pittsburgh Pirates jumped out early and posted an 11-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.

Freddy Sanchez had two hits and scored three runs for the Pirates, who posted double digits in runs for the second time this week after not scoring more than seven runs previously this season.

With the fans at PNC Park waiting for a fireworks display after the game, Nady provided some early excitement with a three-run homer in the third inning off Arizona starter Doug Davis (2-5).

"I had a good grip on it and at that point was just trying not to air mail it into the stands," Nady said. "We had some good at-bats, got their starter out of there. It's nice to see guys hitting with guys on base. It kind of carries over."

After Pittsburgh batted around and scored four times in the fifth to increase the edge to 7-0, Nady made perhaps a game-saving throw in the sixth.

"That was huge," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "It's a fairly critical situation right there, and that was just a tremendous throw."

Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell (4-2) entered the frame with a three-hitter but did not finish the inning. He allowed an RBI double to Eric Byrnes, a sacrifice fly to Stephen Drew and a run-scoring triple to rookie Mark Reynolds that cut the lead to 7-3.

"That (previous) half inning I sat a little bit too long and cooled off," Snell said. "I should have taken my time. I still have a lot of things to learn in this game."

After a popout and an RBI double by Carlos Quentin, Jonah Bayliss replaced Snell and walked Tony Clark. Robby Hammock then singled to right field, but Nady fielded the hit on a hop and threw a strike to catcher Ronny Paulino to cut down Quentin and end the frame.

"You look back on that inning, and let's face it, we were in a little pickle there," Tracy said. "That bailed us out."

Snell was charged with four runs and seven hits in in 5 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts.

"I thought Ian did a very fine job," Tracy said. "What happened was the long inning, and, obviously, he hasn't been out there too often with a seven-run lead. Two things I thought happened was he lost his rhythm a little bit and got into too big of a hurry. He started rushing and they put some hits together and we had to take him out. Momentum, big-time, was swinging in the other direction after we took the 7-0 lead."

Davis was tagged for seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. The lefthander allowed four runs in a season-low 4 1/3 innings in a loss at Houston in his previous start.

"I executed my pitches other than the one to Nady," Davis said. "But other than that, I felt they didn't hit me that hard. I felt I pitched better than my line said I did tonight. It was just one of those nights."

Nady's fifth homer of the season proceeded two-out singles by Sanchez and Jason Bay. In the fifth inning, Adam LaRoche delivered a two-run single and Jose Castillo and Snell added run-scoring singles to make it 7-0.

LaRoche had been mired in a season-long slump - he was hitting .138 two weeks ago - but raised his average above .200 for the first time this season.

"It's a little bit of a relief," said LaRoche, who came over from the Braves via a trade in the offseason and is now hitting .203. "I know what I am capable of and I knew eventually it would come around. I feel more comfortable walking up to the box. Before it seemed like there were 20 defenders out there and every pitcher was on the black."

After the Diamondbacks scored four runs in the sixth and tacked on another in the seventh on a throwing error by shortstop Castillo, Pittsburgh tallied a run in the eighth and got the first career pinch-hit homer from Ryan Doumit off Tony Pena.

"We finally figured (Snell) out," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "But we were down 7-0 when we did it."

Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young left the game in the second inning with tightness in his right groin. He singled in his only at-bat to improve to 17-for-37 in his last 10 games.