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Dunn's blow in the 10th helps Reds rally past Pirates

Aug 5, 2007 - 4:27 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates hit a season-high five homers but the Cincinnati Reds hit the ones that counted most.

Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning as the Reds posted a 9-8 victory over the Pirates on Saturday.

Jeff Keppinger hit a game-tying solo homer in the ninth inning and Edwin Encarnacion also had a game-tying shot in the eighth for Cincinnati, which trailed thee times in this contest.

With the score tied at 7-7 in the top of the 10th, Brandon Phillips led off with a single against Pittsburgh reliever Matt Capps (4-5) before Dunn blasted a 1-2 breaking ball into the seats in right-center field to make it 9-7.

"I actually was trying to hit that hole between first and second and I kind of figured I'd be getting a lot of fastballs because they were worried about Brandon stealing," Dunn said. "The stars were aligned."

It was Dunn's 30th homer, two behind National League leader Prince Fielder, who homered against Philadelphia on Saturday.

"The pitch was kind of up and over the plate and I hit it pretty good," Dunn said.

"I should be able to wake up out of bed and pitch better than I did today," Capps said. "It was one of those days I didn't have control. I had no idea where my slider was going.

"It's a bad feeling being out there and it's even worse coming in after they do what they did to me an inning earlier. Today I let the guys down, let the team down, blew the save ultimately got the loss."

Jared Burton (3-1), Cincinnati's fifth pitcher, earned the win by working 1 2/3 innings before David Weathers came on in the bottom of the 10th to nail down his 21st save despite giving up a run.

Trailing by one in the ninth inning, Keppinger lined a pitch from Capps down the left field line that just cleared the wall near the foul pole to knot the game at 7-7.

"Capps is really good but it happens, that's baseball," Dunn said. "We're swinging the bats pretty good right now. It's a funny game, you've got to take the good with the bad and hopefully the good lasts a whole lot longer than the bad does."

Ronny Paulino had given the Pirates a 7-6 lead a half inning earlier when he hit his third homer in four days off Mike Stanton to propel Pittsburgh to a short-lived lead.

Encarnacion tied the game at 6-6 with one out in the eighth when he hit a 3-2 pitch from Pirates reliever Shawn Chacon over the left field wall.

"The whole game is a matter of bullpens," Reds manager Pete Mackanin said. "You look at the last 4-5 innings, we scored runs off their bullpen and that was the name of the game tonight."

Pittsburgh's other four homers came from Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, pinch hitter Jack Wilson in the 10th and pitcher Matt Morris, who gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the third inning. The five homers were the most since Pittsburgh hit seven on August 20, 2003, at St. Louis.

Morris, who was making his Pirates' debut, tossed 6 1/3 innings and had two hits.

"I really put us in a hole, but with some timely hits we battled back and had a two-run lead, but we just couldn't hold it there," Morris said. "But if keep playing like that, we'll get wins."

The 32-year-old righthander, acquired from San Francisco at Tuesday's non-waiver trade deadline, surrendered five runs on nine hits with four strikeouts but remained winless since June 11.

"Matt Morris did a terrific job," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "The way he pitches and the number of pitches that he threw, it was just a real professional approach and a great thing for some of the young guys in the rotation to see. I really believe he will be a big asset for this club as we move forward."

Morris' homer, a 400-foot solo blast off Reds starter Bobby Livingston, was the second of his career. The first was on April 16, 2003.

"I don't have enough homers to have fun doing that yet but I just kind of got lucky," Morris said. "I swung as hard as I could and didn't know if the ball was out of not. That was a bonus but winning a game is the priority. We battled hard and never gave up. That's all you can ask."

It also was the first long ball by a Pirates pitcher since Kip Wells on August 19, 2005.

After Morris' blast, the Reds struck back in the fourth when Scott Hatteberg led off with a double and scored two batters later on a single by Ken Griffey Jr.

The Reds plated three runs in the sixth, all with two outs. Encarnacion singled home Norris Hopper, and Valentin doubled, scoring Phillips and Encarnacion to make 4-1.

However, Pittsburgh regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Freddy Sanchez led off with a single and then scored two batters later ahead on Bay's 17th homer of the season off Reds reliever Todd Coffey, who was inserted to face Bay.

After Coffey hit a batter and issued a walk, Reds manager Pete Mackanin summoned Mike Gosling to face McLouth. The move backfired as McLouth smacked a ball into the right field seats to put the Pirates ahead, 6-4.

Livingston allowed two runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings and fairly impressed his manager.

"Livingston gave us a great outing there," Mackanin said. "He did a great job, everything we would want him to do in that type of role."

The Pirates wasted a golden opportunity to add on more, loading the bases with none out in the seventh, but failed to score as Jose Bautista popped out and Castillo hit into an inning-ending double play.

Failing to add on proved costly for the Pirates as the Reds added a run in the seventh and tied the score in the eighth on Encarnacion's homer.

"We were in a position to put the game away and we weren't able to do it," Tracy said. "With a 6-5 lead and the bases-loaded no-outs situation in the 7th inning and to come away with nothing, I think that's the key to the game.

"They have a lineup full of guys who can take a swing and hit the ball out of the ballpark. You can't let them hang around, that's simply what it boils down to. We had chance to open it up and didn't."