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Pirates win fourth straight on Maholm's complete game

Aug 14, 2007 - 12:43 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates paid tribute to Barry Bonds on Monday, but Paul Maholm stole the show.

Maholm pitched his second complete game of the season as the Pirates won their fourth straight game, 3-1, over the San Francisco Giants in the first game of a doubleheader.

Bonds, who started his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, singled to right field in the seventh inning for his only hit of the game. The 43-year-old slugger grounded out to first and struck out in his first two plate appearances before being left on deck as Randy Winn grounded out to end the game.

"With Barry on deck, I was kind of hoping to face him," said Maholm, although Pirates manager Jim Tracy said the pitcher would have been lifted in favor of lefthander Damaso Marte if Bonds came to the plate.

"This was the first time I ever faced him, and it was fun each time he came up," Maholm said. "Our crowd gave him some cheers, and he deserves it ... but fortunately for us, we won the game and held him at bay."

While Bonds got the ovations, the 25-year-old Maholm surrendered just one run on three hits while striking out four without allowing a walk. His performance followed a complete-game victory over San Francisco by Tom Gorzelanny on Sunday.

"It's one of those things where Tom did pitch great yesterday, and I was able to use the approach he did - just go out, mix speeds and change pitches a lot," Maholm said. "We have similar games, so as long as I went out there, mixed speeds, got ahead and threw strikes, it was going to be a good day."

Maholm gave up his only run in the third inning when Rajai Davis singled to center, scoring Daniel Ortmeier, who led off the inning with a double.

"That was a great start by Paul Maholm," Tracy said. "He was terrific. He was in command of the game right from the outset."

Davis has hit safely in all eight games he has started since coming to the Giants on July 31 in a trade that sent Matt Morris to the Pirates.

"He's been doing a great job for us," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's fun to watch and he's showing us what he can do."

The Pirates opened the scoring in the first inning after San Francisco starter Matt Cain surrendered two walks sandwiched around Freddy Sanchez's double to load the bases. After Ryan Doumit struck out swinging for the second out of the inning, Jose Castillo doubled to right, plating Sanchez and Jose Bautista to give the Pirates a two-run lead.

"I wanted to go deep into the game because we had two games and the bullpen has been used a lot lately," Cain said. "They got those runs early, and that turned out to be enough."

Maholm and Nate McLouth extended the Pirates lead to 3-0 when they stroked back-to-back doubles in the second.

Cain (4-13) settled down after struggling in the first two innings, giving up three runs on five hits over seven innings. The righthander struck out seven and walked two.

"It's a shame; he pitched well," Bochy said. "He pitched well enough to win. We've got to swing the bats better. One run on three hits?

"That's not going to get the job done. But Cain did his job."