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Carlyle helps Braves sweep Pirates

Jul 15, 2007 - 8:36 PM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Buddy Carlyle helped the Atlanta Braves sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time in six years.

Carlyle hurled eight solid frames and scored a run to help the Braves to a 5-1 win Sunday over the Pirates on Sunday.

The righthander allowed one run and four hits, and struck out four without a walk in eight solid frames. Carlyle, who allowed three runs and eight hits in eight innings against San Diego on June 6, needed just 91 pitches - 60 strikes - to dispatch of a light-hitting Pittsburgh lineup.

"The sweep's always big," Carlyle said. "I've never been part of anything in the second-half before. It's very exciting. I waited a long time to be a part of a situation like this. It's really special to be a part of it."

The only blemish against Carlyle was a homer by Freddy Sanchez in the first.

After former Brave Adam LaRoche followed with a single, the righthander settled down to retire the next 12 batters before Jose Castillo tripled in the fifth. He also retired the last eight in order before he was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth.

"I'm just trying to treat every inning and every at-bat like it's the last one of my career," Carlyle said. "If you get complacent, bad things can happen."

The 29-year old journeyman Carlyle (4-2), who has spent the better of 12 professional seasons in the minors and Japan, signed a minor league contract with the Braves in the offseason.

After injuries to Atlanta staff and the ineffective pitching of Mark Redman, the Pennsylvania-native Carlyle was recalled from Class AAA Richmond on May 26.

Penciled in as the Braves' fifth starter, the righthander responded by winning his first major league game in more than seven years and 269 days on June 5 - the longest stretch between victories by any active player, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

On Sunday, Carlyle added one more milestone to his major league resume, notching back-to-back wins for the first time in his career en route to tallying his fourth win in 41 days.

"We got nothing out of (Carlyle's) spot (in the rotation) prior," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "It's very important. If your fifth starter can win 10 games, you got a good one. He can do that."

The righthander also broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth.

Light-hitting Chris Woodward began the frame with a double down the left field line ahead of Carlyle, who laced a sacrifice bunt down the third base line.

Third baseman Castillo fielded the ball, but threw wildly over the head of LaRoche, allowing Woodward to score and Carlyle to advance to second base.

"I told Chris that I wanted him to hit a double, so I could bunt him to third," Carlyle said. "It's easier for a lefthander to bunt with a runner on second. I was very happy that he was on second and not third."

Carlyle advanced to third on Yunel Escobar's groundout and scored on a single by Edgar Renteria.

Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm (5-12) allowed three runs - two earned - and eight hits in six frames to become the major league's second 12 game loser.

"Overall, I thought I pitched decent, but the outcome wasn't," Maholm said. "There were a few pitches I wasn't happy with."

Maholm's wildness gave Atlanta the lead in the first when Escobar scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, 1-1.

Jeff Francoeur added an insurance run with an RBI single off Solomon Torres in the seventh. Torres, who was activated from the disabled list on Sunday, had been sidelined since June 9 with an inflamed right elbow.

Escobar capped the scoring with a RBI single in the eight for the Braves, who have won four straight and 12 of their last 16 games to remain 1 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Mets in the National League East.

"If we keep with it like this, eventually you'll finish the year right there," Francoeur said. "This win was huge for us."

Pittsburgh, which won five of six games prior to the All-Star Break, mustered just four hits in this one and was outscored 19-6 in the three-game sweep.

"The last three games, we weren't swinging the bats anything like the last two weeks before the All-Star game," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "Offensively, we did very little. When you don't score runs, you don't have much of a chance of winning. (We had) four hits and the pitcher got one of them."

Renteria had four hits for Atlanta, which swept the Pirates for the first time since June 2001.