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Pirates outlast punchless Phillies in 12 innings

Aug 9, 2008 - 6:37 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia Phillies are not only losing, they're not even scoring.

Steven Pearce snapped a scoreless tie in the 12th inning with an RBI double and scored later in the frame as the Pittsburgh Pirates posted a 2-0 victory over the Phillies on Friday.

It was the second straight shutout suffered by the Phillies, who have not scored a run in 23 consecutive innings.

"We couldn't manufacture one run," Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. "I wouldn't have thought that. I don't have an answer for it. We're trying."

Les Walrond (0-1) was in his second inning of relief when he surrendered a leadoff double by Ryan Doumit in the 12th. After moving to third on Brendan Moss' groundout, Doumit scored on Pearce's two-base hit just inside the third base bag.

"It was one of those things where tonight had the makings of a 25-inning game," Doumit said. "There was just no momentum on either side. Pitchers stepped up all game long. I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could handle."

Four batters later, Freddy Sanchez plated Pearce with an infield single off Clay Condrey, completing the scoring.

Moss helped save the win for T.J. Beam (1-1) in the bottom of the inning, making a superb diving catch of Chase Utley's line drive to left field with two on and one out. Moss then threw the ball to second baseman Sanchez, who relayed it to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz to double off Shane Victorino and end the game.

"That was a great play, obviously," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said of Moss' catch. "If that ball gets through, it's a tie game. It could have been a different story, but (Moss was) very aggressive. He didn't panic, got the ball back in and Freddy got it to first for the double play."

Craig Hansen picked up his first save for Pittsburgh despite walking two in the 12th.

"It was one of those games where you knew it was going to be a nail-biter to the end, and it was," Russell said.

With the win, the Pirates extended their extra-inning winning streak to nine games and improved to 10-3 overall in games that go beyond nine frames.

"I think it's the character we've had all year," Russell said. "These guys have never laid down. There's not too many games where we get blown out. It's helped us in extra innings."

Both teams had threatened in the 10th inning but left the bases loaded.

Pittsburgh's Paul Maholm and Philadelphia's Joe Blanton were engaged in a pitchers' duel for seven innings.

Maholm, who posted a complete-game victory over the Phillies on April 27, allowed five hits and three walks while striking out a career-high 10. Six of the lefthander's strikeouts came during a span in which he retired seven of the last eight batters he faced.

"Paulie threw the ball extremely well," Russell said. "He started out a little erratic, but as the game went on, he really locked in and was very consistent."

Maholm has allowed just one run over 16 innings in his two starts against Philadelphia this year.

"Paul has been our go-to guy all year," Doumit said. "If there's a big game, we want him pitching it. He just continues to get better every week."

Blanton was even better, surrendering only one hit - a leadoff single by Mientkiewicz in the fourth inning - and two walks with seven strikeouts. The burly righthander tossed his second straight quality start, as he worked seven strong innings in Philadelphia's 2-1 victory at St. Louis on Sunday.

"I'm very pleased with the last two games he pitched," Manuel said. "Especially, I've been pleased with his command."

Pittsburgh almost got on the scoreboard in the eighth inning against Chad Durbin, but Jose Bautista's deep drive to left field was caught by Pat Burrell at the wall. In the bottom of the frame, Burrell also flied out to the wall in left against Denny Bautista.

The Phillies had scoring opportunities against Maholm early but were unable to capitalize. Victorino hit a one-out double in the first inning, but Maholm retired the next two batters.

Philadelphia then put two runners on with one out in the second, but Maholm got Eric Bruntlett to hit into an inning-ending double play. Maholm struck out Utley in both the third and fifth innings as the Phillies also threatened to get on the board.

"The first few innings, I was barely off," Maholm said. "After that, I felt a lot more comfortable, able to challenge the guys. My approach doesn't change a whole lot. Tonight, the breaking balls were working and they were swinging and missing."

Victorino and Jimmy Rollins each recorded two hits for Philadelphia.