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Castillo comes through in a pinch for Pirates

Aug 2, 2007 - 10:27 PM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates nearly played themselves out of another win before Jose Castillo stepped up.

Castillo's pinch-hit single drove home the winning run in the 11th inning as the Pirates squeaked out a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Thursday's rubber game.

It was the second straight win for Pittsburgh, who previously captured back-to-back wins between July 5-6. The Pirates, who entered the contest with a 3-14 record since the All-Star break, also recorded their first series win since taking a four-game set from the Milwaukee Brewers here between July 2-5.

"We have two months of baseball to play and we want to get back to playing the kind of baseball we were playing for three weeks leading up to the All-Star break," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said referring to the Pirates' 9-4 mark in the 13 games prior to the break. "The last two days are somewhat resembling what we were doing prior to the break."

The extra-inning win almost did not happen despite the fact that Pittsburgh had Jason Bay reach on an error by shortstop David Eckstein and Ryan Doumit singled to start the 11th.

With the Pirates clearly expected to sacrifice with Ronny Paulino, Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols cheated in very aggressively and flipped the ball to third base after fielding the bunt in front of the mound, starting a 3-5-4 double play.

"That should've been a game-saving play," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

Despite that mental mistake, Pittsburgh improved to 4-7 against the Cardinals this season as Castillo hit a low pitch from Brad Thompson (6-5) into right field, scoring Doumit.

It was the first hit in the series for Castillo, who entered the at-bat hitting just .159 (23-for-145) in his career on 0-2 counts.

"Brad's got to make that pitch," La Russa said. "He actually gave him two to hit but he fouled the other one off. That ball's got to be out of the zone, he knows better than that."

"That was a two-strike breaking ball," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "They were trying to expand the strike zone on him and they didn't get it out there far enough. It's a great at-bat. It's the last player you have left on your bench and he gets a hit to win the game."

Doumit scored before an off-line throw from Adam Kennedy, who made his first career appearance in right field in his 1,104th major league game due to the Cardinals' thin bench.

"You kind of see everything unfolding in the sixth, seventh inning so I told Tony if he needs me to go out there (in the outfield) I can do it for him and I ended up having to," Kennedy said. "You just do whatever is needed in any given game. "It's part of the game and it was called for today and I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Kennedy was needed in right field following Scott Spiezio's ejection by home plate umpire Bob Davidson following a called third strike to end the top of the 10th.

Pirates righthander Salomon Torres (1-3) allowed a hit and struck out two in two innings for the win.

The game was scoreless until the fourth, when the Cardinals scored three runs against Pirates starter Shane Youman, who issued three walks in the frame, two of which scored.

Scott Rolen plated Pujols with a groundout and, after two straight walks by Youman, Aaron Miles smacked a two-run double to give St. Louis a 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals' lead did not last long as the Pirates knotted the score in the fifth. Paulino and Jack Wilson hit back-to-back one-out doubles to make it 3-1.

After pinch hitter Josh Phelps walked, Nate McLouth doubled in another run. Jose Bautista followed directly after with a sacrifice fly to pull Pittsburgh even.

St. Louis, which had a five-game winning streak over Pittsburgh snapped with Wednesday's 15-1 rout, wasted a chance in the sixth as it left the bases loaded.

A double by Yadier Molina and walks to Jim Edmonds and Eckstein loaded the bases with two outs. However, Pirates reliever Masumi Kuwata got out of his own jam by getting fellow Japanese player So Taguchi to fly out.

"We had a bunch of zero innings," said La Russa, whose team stranded 11 runners.

"We had opportunities but it just didn't happen for us today," Kennedy said.

The Pirates then took their first lead when Paulino blasted his seventh homer of the season and second in two games in the bottom of the sixth off Russ Springer. The catcher recorded his first career grand slam in the first inning of Wednesday's win.

"I feel pretty good at the plate right now and I just try to hit the ball as hard as I can and it's working out well for me," Paulino said.

"They had the lead early but I don't think it was a petty good lead. In that situation when you're playing the home team, you have to have a five-run lead for us to not be able to make a comeback. It was only in the fifth when we were losing 3-0, and I think we still knew we had a chance to try to win the game."

The lead proved short-lived, however, as Pujols led off the seventh by crushing an 0-2 pitch from Shawn Chacon over the center field wall to tie the score at 4-4. It was Pujols' 24th homer of the year and also his 20th in his career at PNC Park. That total is the most by any opposing player at the Pirates' ballpark.