• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Six-run second lifts Pirates past Nationals

Jul 1, 2007 - 2:54 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- On a night when thousands of Pittsburgh Pirates fans staged a walkout to protest 15 consecutive losing seasons, the team turned in a quality performance.

Tom Gorzelanny pitched 7 1/3 innings of solid ball and Adam LaRoche had three RBI as the Pirates rode a six-run second inning to a 7-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

Gorzelanny (8-4) allowed two runs and five hits, striking out six and walking three for Pittsburgh, which has won four of five.

"Another great pitching performance by Gorzelanny," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "I thought he looked real free and easy tonight. He looked very at ease in his delivery. The ball was coming out of his hand really well tonight."

The Pirates broke the game open in the second, sending 10 men to the plate. After Xavier Nady singled and Ryan Doumit doubled, Nationals starter Jason Bergmann walked Ronny Paulino and Jack Wilson singled to center to score Nady and Doumit.

"(A six-run inning) gives you a little room to work with," Gorzelanny said. "It helps you get into a rhythm and settle down."

Four batters later, Freddy Sanchez singled to center to drive in Paulino and Wilson, and LaRoche followed by plating Nate McLouth and Sanchez with a double to center.

"That's what we've been missing all year," LaRoche said. "Getting those big hits. What it does is it gives you a cushion, and then (Gorzelanny) does his job and settled in and we get a win."

Ronnie Belliard hit his third home run for reeling Washington, which has lost five in a row, six of seven and 11 of 14.

After the game, the Nationals had a closed-door clubhouse meeting in which manager Manny Acta addressed the players. The first-year skipper had actually planned the meeting before the game.

"It's been the same thing over and over," Acta said. "I just don't want the guys to fall into that routine."

Players said Acta never raised his voice or singled out any individuals during the meeting, which lasted more than 10 minutes.

"He's just frustrated," veteran Robert Fick said. "He said we just can't fall into that trap of, 'We are supposed to be a (lousy) team.'"

The Nationals scored the game's first run in the first when Dmitri Young's single scored Ryan Zimmerman, who was 2-for-4 in the contest.

Considering Washington had scored a total of five runs in its previous four games and had not scored six in a contest since June 18, that figured to be all Gorzelanny needed.

The lefthander, who entered the game with a 3.10 ERA that ranked 10th in the National League, has not given up six runs in a game this season and has only allowed more than three runs twice. He is a candidate to be named to the National League All-Star team when the rosters are announced Sunday.

"We will just have to wait and see (Sunday)," Gorzelanny said. "If I go, it's exciting and I'd love it. But if not either way, it's O.K."

Bergmann (1-5), who was making his second start since recovering from elbow inflammation that caused him to miss five weeks, allowed six runs and eight hits in four innings, walking two and striking out one.

"I just didn't have a feel for any one of my pitches," Bergmann said. "Each one of my breaking pitches let me down at one time or another. The command of my pitches wasn't where it needed to be. I never felt really comfortable out there today."

LaRoche hit his 10th homer of the season with nobody on in the fifth to make it 7-1. But Belliard's shot to left got that run back for Washington a half-inning later.

Thousands of fans in the crowd of 26,959 left their seats at the end of the third inning in a walkout that had been publicized throughout the week in Pittsburgh. Many rallied beforehand across the street from the park outside a bar.

Protesting fans, angered by a perceived lack of financial commitment to the team by principal owner Bob Nutting, wore green shirts. Most did not leave the stadium and only retreated to the concourse to return to their seats for the start of the fifth inning.