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Maholm pitches Pirates past Reds

Aug 14, 2008 - 3:23 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Paul Maholm's teammates finally backed his stellar pitching with sufficient offense.

Maholm, who had gotten only two runs of support in his past three starts, was strong for eight innings and Jason Michaels and Brandon Moss each homered as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2, on Wednesday night.

Maholm (8-7), whose 2.81 ERA since May 31 is third among all major league lefthanders, allowed five hits and didn't issue a walk.

"(Maholm) pitched great today, he really did," Michaels said. "He wasn't throwing a lot of pitches, and as a defense, that's always good. He did a pretty good job of controlling the game, and we were able to get some runs for him."

Corey Patterson and rookie Jay Bruce each homered for the last-place Reds, who have lost seven of their past eight.

Patterson led off the third with his eighth homer and Bruce broke an 0-for-11 skid with his 12th homer to lead off the seventh. But other than that, Cincinnati managed only five baserunners - three of which were erased by double plays.

"I was just trying to make some pitches and the defense again made huge plays," Maholm said. "(Michaels) made a sliding catch and there were a couple double plays turned. I was just going after them and staying ahead (in the count). The two home runs, it happens, and they were solo shots. I just kept going after guys."

The game had the makings of a pitchers' duel early, as the Reds' Josh Fogg cruised through four innings, allowing only two baserunners.

Things fell apart, however, for the ex-Pirate in the fifth. Moss led off with a double high off the 21-foot wall in right and Michaels followed with his eighth home run since being acquired from the Cleveland Indians.

After Pittsburgh loaded the bases, Ryan Doumit's two-run double scored Luis Rivas and Doug Mientkiewicz. The ball again was high off the right field wall and likely would have driven in three runs had a fan not interfered with it.

"They picked me up," Maholm said of Pittsburgh's offense. "We ended up scoring four runs (that inning). That was big for me, and I was just focused then on going out there and putting up more zeroes and making sure the momentum stayed with us."

The hit also ended the night for Fogg (2-5), who still is the all-time leader in victories at PNC Park with 20. He fell to 1-3 since a stint on the disabled list in June.

"I just didn't make pitches when I needed to," Fogg said. "After the Michaels home run it kind of got away from me. If I'm able to get that third out without Doumit hitting a double, it's still a 2-1 ballgame and the Bruce home run ties it up. That's all because I was not able to finish off an inning."

Moss' shot in the eighth rounded out the scoring and paved the way for John Grabow to pitch a perfect ninth for his third save.

McLouth, Moss and Michaels each had two hits for Pittsburgh, which has won two of three.

"It was an overall good win for us," Pirates manager John Russell said. "We played good defense - (Andy) LaRoche did a great job at third, we played well in the outfield. It was a solid game all around. We swung the bats pretty well, too. It was a good, solid win for us."