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Maholm, Nady help Pirates end skid, defeat Marlins

Apr 23, 2008 - 4:05 AM By Brad Everett PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- In a battle of two teams seemingly headed in opposite directions, the Pittsburgh Pirates figured they would reverse roles for at least one night.

Paul Maholm pitched six strong innings and the Pirates ended a six-game losing streak by defeating the Florida Marlins, 3-2, on Tuesday night at PNC Park.

Pittsburgh even overcame center fielder Nate McLouth seeing his major league-leading 19-game hitting streak come to an end.

"It was a big-time victory," said McLouth, who had a hit in every game for the Pirates to begin the season. "Tonight you kind of saw everything come together. Good pitching, a couple of timely hits, it's huge."

As far as his hitting streak ending, the fourth-year outfielder took it all in stride.

"It was a good run to start the season," McLouth said. "We're just 20 games into the season, we have 142 left. It means I just have to start another one."

Xavier Nady was the offensive star for Pittsburgh, drilling a two-out, two-run single that capped a three-run sixth inning and gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead. Nady, who leads the team with 19 RBIs, extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10 games.

"We were able to capitalize on getting a couple of guys on and it gave me an opportunity to sneak one in there," Nady said.

Maholm (1-2) yielded a run, four hits and a walk while striking out six for his first win in four outings this season.

It was an impressive performance for the lefthander after getting tagged in his previous start. Maholm surrendered six runs and 11 hits in an 8-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Wednesday.

Maholm allowed his lone run in the first inning but settled down quickly, pitching to the minimum number of batters over the next four frames en route to his longest outing of the campaign.

"From the first inning on it was like, I have to shut them out and make sure nothing happens like it had been in the past," Maholm said. "I had to make sure that the guys knew that it's going to be easy to come back."

Pirates reliever Tyler Yates allowed a leadoff homer to Jorge Cantu in the seventh, but Yates, Damasco Marte and John Grabow surrendered no more runs over two frames before Matt Capps worked around a leadoff single to Jeremy Hermida in the ninth for his fifth save.

Florida starter Ricky Nolasco (1-2) was rolling along through five innings, limiting the Pirates to a single hit while clinging to a 1-0 lead.

However, with runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth, Ryan Doumit's run-scoring double to left-center field plated Freddy Sanchez to knot the score before Nady's single to left made it 3-1 and helped the home team end its slide.

"I let the Pirates off the hook and it's something I have to eliminate," Nolasco said. "With two outs and two strikes, I give up those consecutive hits. I've got to be able to close that inning out. There's nothing else to it. What they did just can't happen."

Nolasco allowed three runs, five hits and two walks to take the loss.

Cantu finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs for the Marlins, who had won three in a row.