Final
Nady delivers as Pirates win road trip opener
Jun 6, 2007 - 4:18 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Perhaps the Pittsburgh Pirates are better off away from PNC Park.Xavier Nady delivered a bases-loaded double in a five-run third inning and Freddy Sanchez contributed two hits as the Pirates posted a 7-6 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.
Jack Wilson and Ronny Paulino homered for the Pirates, who opened a six-game road trip with a win after competing a disappointing 2-5 homestand.
"We've had some tough losses, some extremely tough losses," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "Lost a tough game on Thursday to the Padres (led 2-0 in the ninth). Lost three times to the Dodgers by a run. I think tonight was our 14th win on the road (14-14). We are a much better team on the road than in any stretch last year."
After Jose Bautista and Jason Bay sandwiched walks around an RBI single to Sanchez, Nady followed with a drive to deep center field that provided Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead against Washington starter Mike Bacsik (1-2).
"I came up and got the timely hit, but you got to give credit to the guys before me," Nady said. "We needed that to kind of give us a little lead, a little cushion, because we had been scuffling when we've had the opportunities. It was nice, helped (starter Shawn) Chacon relax a little bit, and go from there."
Nady, who entered batting .333 (17-for-51) with runners in scoring position and .338 overall in his previous 17 games, is 4-for-6 with eight RBI with the bases loaded this season.
Nady added a sacrifice fly in the fifth for a 6-2 edge. After Bautista singled with one out, Sanchez doubled him to third and Nady brought him home.
The offensive support was enough for Pittsburgh starter Shawn Chacon (2-0), who yielded four runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 frames. A likely July trade-deadline target, Chacon was coming off seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts against San Diego on Thursday in his last outing.
Wilson got Pittsburgh on the board with his third homer of the season in the third inning. Paulino provided Pittsburgh a seemingly comfortable 7-2 edge with his fifth blast in the sixth off reliever Winston Abreu.
But Washington rallied with three runs in the sixth, starting with an RBI single by Tony Batista. Felipe Lopez followed with an RBI double scoring Ryan Langerhans, but Batista, trying to score from first, ran through a stop sign from third base coach Tim Tolman and was thrown out at the plate on a very close call.
"I see it (stop sign), but on that kind of base hit, you try to score from first base," said Batista, who added that he saw the sign late. "That's what I tried to do. I think I was safe, even though the umpire called me out."
That proved to be a big out as Cristian Guzman followed with a triple, scoring Lopez.
"You can't be aggressive until you get the tying run to home plate," Tolman said.
Pirates reliever Jonah Bayliss entered and got Ryan Zimmerman on a popout to escape.
"It hurt us, obviously," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "Those are the type of things that we can't afford. We can't afford to be making those type of mistakes. We were down by four runs."
Washington cut its deficit to 7-6 in the seventh on a run-scoring groundout by Brian Schneider, but John Grabow struck out Ryan Langerhans with a runner on second to escape.
Salomon Torres logged a perfect eighth and new closer Matt Capps worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save in three chances.
"We got a very competitive effort again from Shawn Chacon," said Pirates manager Jim Tracy. "We bend a little bit bullpen wise in the sixth and seventh inning, but we got the outs with the guys that we used that was necessary to get us to the back end and our two guys in the eighth and ninth inning were terrific.
Bacsik (1-2) lasted just 4 1/3 innings, yielding six runs, six hits and five walks while dealing with a stomach ache that bothered him from the start. The lefthander allowed just three walks combined in his first three starts covering 19 2/3 innings.
"If I just go out and give us a halfway decent effort, we get the win," Bacsik said. I was just physically fighting through not feeling good, so energy and focus were just lacking. I feel like I'm making an excuse and I don't want to be. I took the ball. I said I was good enough to go, and I went out there and I didn't do a good job."
The Nationals were helped by four double plays - one shy of the Montreal-Washington franchise record.
- NL
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
PITTSBURGH 0 0 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 7 9 0
WASHINGTON 0 2 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 6 12 0 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: PIT - SHAWN CHACON, DAMASO MARTE (6TH), JONAH BAYLISS (6TH), JOHN
GRABOW (7TH), SALOMON TORRES (8TH), MATT CAPPS (9TH) AND RONNY
PAULINO
WAS - MIKE BACSIK, WINSTON
Jun 5 10:04 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
GROUND OUT BY BRIAN SCHNEIDER SCORED AUSTIN KEARNS.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, R CHURCH ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 7
WASHINGTON 6 BOTTOM, 7TH
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: R LANGERHANS (.167, 0-FOR-1, 2 BB)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 9:28 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
TRIPLE BY CRISTIAN GUZMAN SCORED FELIPE LOPEZ.
SITUATION: 3 RUNS IN, C GUZMAN ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 7
WASHINGTON 5 BOTTOM, 6TH
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: R ZIMMERMAN (.247, 0-FOR-3)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 9:04 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY FELIPE LOPEZ SCORED RYAN LANGERHANS.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, F LOPEZ ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 7
WASHINGTON 4 BOTTOM, 6TH
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: C GUZMAN (.321, 1-FOR-3)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 9:04 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY TONY BATISTA SCORED RYAN CHURCH.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, T BATISTA ON FIRST, R LANGERHANS ON SECOND, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 7
WASHINGTON 3 BOTTOM, 6TH
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: F LOPEZ (.246, 1-FOR-3, RBI)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 8:52 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SOLO HOME RUN BY RONNY PAULINO (5) TO LEFT WITH 0 OUT IN
THE 6TH OFF WINSTON ABREU.
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 7, WASHINGTON 2
DUE UP FOR PITTSBURGH: J WILSON (.250, 1-FOR-2, HR, RBI)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 8:42 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SACRIFICE FLY BY XAVIER NADY SCORED JOSE BAUTISTA.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, J BAY ON FIRST, F SANCHEZ ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 6
WASHINGTON 2 TOP, 5TH
DUE UP FOR PITTSBURGH: A LAROCHE (.221, 0-FOR-2)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 8:30 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY XAVIER NADY SCORED JOSE BAUTISTA, FREDDY SANCHEZ
AND JASON BAY.
SITUATION: 5 RUNS IN, X NADY ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 5
WASHINGTON 2 TOP, 3RD
DUE UP FOR PITTSBURGH: A LAROCHE (.222, 0-FOR-1)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 7:54 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY FREDDY SANCHEZ SCORED SHAWN CHACON.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, F SANCHEZ ON FIRST, J BAUTISTA ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 2
WASHINGTON 2 TOP, 3RD
DUE UP FOR PITTSBURGH: J BAY (.305, 0-FOR-1)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 7:48 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SOLO HOME RUN BY JACK WILSON (3) TO LEFT WITH 1 OUT IN THE
3RD OFF MIKE BACSIK.
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 1, WASHINGTON 2
DUE UP FOR PITTSBURGH: S CHACON (.143, 0 HR, 0 RBI)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 7:42 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY FELIPE LOPEZ SCORED RYAN LANGERHANS.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, F LOPEZ ON FIRST, M BACSIK ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 0
WASHINGTON 2 BOTTOM, 2ND
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: C GUZMAN (.327, 1-FOR-1)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 7:36 PM - NL
AT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY MIKE BACSIK SCORED RYAN CHURCH.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, M BACSIK ON FIRST, R LANGERHANS ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: PITTSBURGH 0
WASHINGTON 1 BOTTOM, 2ND
DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: F LOPEZ (.244, 0-FOR-1)
Pirates vs. NationalsJun 5 7:35 PM
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