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Bautista's sacrifice fly helps Pirates edge Nationals

Jun 30, 2007 - 4:12 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Jose Bautista's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Jose Castillo to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday.

Rookie Rajai Davis had two hits and Ian Snell pitched seven strong innings for Pittsburgh, which has won four of five as well as five of its past seven home games.

In the bottom of the ninth, Ronny Paulino led off with a single to left and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. On the first pitch to Nate McLouth, Jon Rauch (3-2) threw a wild pitch under the glove of catcher Brian Schneider to move Paulino to third base.

After Jose Castillo pinch ran for Paulino and McLouth was intentionally walked to put runners on first and third, pinch hitter Ryan Doumit walked to load the bases. Bautista then lifted a fly ball moderate depth to left fielder Ryan Church, whose accurate throw was not in time to get Castillo.

"I wasn't trying to get a sac fly," Bautista said. "I was just trying to put the ball in play and hope something good would happen, and it did and it got the job done and won the game for us."

Reliever Matt Capps (4-4) earned the victory with a perfect top of the ninth for the Pirates, who just returned from a 3-6 road trip.

"This feels great, especially after losing two in Anaheim in extra innings," Capps said. "To win one like that is a great feeling. I think it's a great thing for our team, and hopefully we can feed off it."

Trailing, 2-0, in the seventh, the Pirates tied the game against reliever Saul Rivera. Jack Wilson walked to lead off. He scored when McLouth followed with a triple to right on a ball that just eluded the glove of right fielder Austin Kearns. Two batters later, Bautista's sacrifice fly to center scored McLouth.

"We knew that we were going to win the game after we came back in the seventh and tied it," Paulino said.

Matt Chico pitched six shutout innings and Ryan Langerhans hit a solo homer for the Nationals, who have lost four in a row, five of six and eight of 10.

Chico, who has not won since May 17 - a span covering eight starts, deserved a better fate Friday. Though the Pirates had a baserunner in every inning against Chico, he did not allow a run in permitting six hits and two walks while striking out two.

"Chico threw the ball well," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "It was very tough because he didn't have one inning where he retired the side in order, but he did make the pitches when he had to."

Langerhans, who entered the game hitting only .173, hammered an 0-1 pitch from Snell into the elevated seats in right-center field with two outs in the third. It was his fourth home run, all coming while a member of the Nationals. Langerhans had begun the season in Atlanta and was traded to Oakland before being acquired by Washington.

The Nationals' made it 2-0 in the seventh, when Felipe Lopez's sacrifice fly to the warning track in center scored Dimitri Young, who had led off with a single.

Snell was nearly as effective as Chico in earning a no-decision. The righthander allowed only two runs and five hits in seven innings. Snell, who struck out five and entered the game fifth in the National League in earned run average, has allowed two runs or less in four of his past five starts.

Snell hopes he is a candidate to be named to the NL All-Star team when the lineups are announced Sunday.

"It's not up to me, but I'm not going to sit here and lie and say I haven't thought about it," Snell said. "I think I'm worthy of consideration. I would obviously love to go. I guess we'll find out soon if I have been good enough so far."