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Maholm outduels Willis as Pirates snap skid

Jun 27, 2007 - 5:02 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Paul Maholm pitched 7 2/3 outstanding innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates got to Dontrelle Willis en route to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Marlins on Tuesday

Willis (7-7), who is winless in his last six starts, left last Tuesday's start against the Chicago White Sox with a strained left forearm after one inning, surrendering four runs and three hits with three walks.

After having his scheduled start Sunday pushed back, the Pirates got to Willis early in this one to snap a five-game winning streak before he settled into a groove.

Maholm (5-10) was brilliant in winning for just the second time in nine starts. The lefthander allowed just two runs and three hits with a walk and five strikeouts.

"I was getting ahead with everything; mixing my speeds," Maholm said. "I got in a groove and had them hitting a lot of grounders."

Maholm retired 15 in a row before giving up a pinch-hit single to Jason Wood in the eighth inning.

"An absolutely brilliant pitching performance by Paul Maholm," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "It was somewhat resemblant of his shutout against the (Houston) Astros early in the season."

Tracy found much to like about Maholm's outing.

"He pitched in some games where he was the unfortunate loser, but his effort tonight was enough to get it done," Tracy said. "From a command standpoint, that's what he's capable of - what you saw out there tonight."

Pittsburgh loaded the bases in the second inning on singles by Xavier Nady, Josh Phelps and Ronnie Paulino before Jack Wilson singled up the middle to tie the game at 1-1. After Maholm struck out, rookie Rajai Davis hit a sacrifice fly to left.

"We got some good production from the bottom part of our (batting) order," Tracy said. "We got to (Willis) early and fortunately for us that was enough."

After Dan Uggla's 16th homer in the third tied the score, Wilson led off the fourth with his fourth blast.

"Paul Maholm threw an unbelievable game, and I was just happy to be a part of helping him win it," Wilson said. "When a guy goes out and does something like that against a team that can hit it out of the park at any time, that's pretty impressive and you want it to stand up."

Willis then retired 12 of his next 14 batters before departing after seven innings. The 25-year-old was charged with three runs and seven hits.

Shawn Chacon got the final out in the eighth with a runner on first and Matt Capps pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save in six chances.

Florida scored in the first when Brett Carroll led off with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Cabrera. The only other hit until the eighth was the homer by Uggla.

Willis is winless in his last four starts.

"For me, it might have been (Willis's) best outing of the year, or right up there," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "He pitched well. They hit some soft singles in there and got some runs. We hit some balls hard right at some people and they got them."