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Snell, Doumit help Pirates top Nationals

Jun 12, 2008 - 3:52 AM By Brad Everett PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- After two frustration-filled months on the mound, Ian Snell finally found his way back into the win column.

Snell pitched six-plus strong innings to win for the first time in 11 starts, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 3-1 win against the reeling Washington Nationals at PNC Park on Wednesday.

Ryan Doumit went 3-for-4 with his third home run in two games to help the Pirates win for the third time in four games.

Snell (3-6) gave up one run, six hits, and struck out six in winning for the first time since April 12. He had gone 0-6 in his previous 10 starts.

"I kept telling myself, We need a win, we need a win, all night," Snell said. "I haven't got much sleep in the past couple days. It was real important. I'd like to see our team do something special here. I think we're going to do something special. Right now, we're playing good baseball, and it's going to continue."

Snell's outing continued the recent outstanding pitching by the Pirates' rotation, which has combined for a 2.94 ERA in the first nine games of the current 10-game homestand.

"The way our pitching's coming around, we're very excited about what we're doing," Pirates manager John Russell said.

The Pittsburgh bullpen pitched three scoreless innings to close the game. Damaso Marte pitched the seventh and Tyler Yates worked the eighth before giving way to Matt Capps, who earned his 16th save of the season after blowing his first in a 7-6 loss on Tuesday.

A night after exploding for a season-high five home runs, the Nationals had several chances against Snell but could only muster one run. Their best opportunity came in the seventh, when the first two batters reached base, forcing Snell to exit the game. But Marte came on to retire three of the four batters he faced, the lone blemish coming on Elijah Dukes' two-out RBI single which cut the deficit to 2-1.

The Nationals have lost nine of their last 11 games, scoring three runs or fewer in each of those losses.

"I feel like today, it was a little bit of a carry-over even when we didn't score runs because we swung the bats good," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "We hit a lot of balls hard, right at people. I felt good the way we swung the bat. Not always is that going show in the score, but hopefully we can do the same thing tomorrow."

Doumit continued his surge since coming off the disabled list last Friday, hitting a solo home run in the fifth to stake the Pirates to a 2-0 lead. Jason Bay smacked an RBI double in the first and Xavier Nady hit a run-scoring single in the seventh.

"He took a few games to get his timing back after being out for a while but it looks like now he is back into the groove he was in when he got hurt. Obviously he's a big boost for our lineup." Russell said of Doumit, who had been sidelined since May 14 with a fractured left thumb.

Nationals starter John Lannan (4-7) wasn't quite as good as Snell, but still pitched well enough to keep his team in the game. The lefthander went six innings, surrendering two runs and seven hits while striking out three.

"I just have to keep on battling," Lannan said. "I mean, you really can't control wins and losses. I just control what I can do, basically ERA and keeping guys off base with walks and just keeping us in the ballgame. We just got to keep on battling and not focus so much on our record."