• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Pirates knock around Cueto, complete sweep of Reds

Apr 13, 2008 - 9:36 PM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates used the long ball to finish off a sweep to answer getting swept.

Ryan Doumit, Xavier Nady and Jason Bay each homered as the Pirates completed a three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds with a 9-1 victory Sunday afternoon.

Tom Gorzelanny pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and Nate McLouth extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games - every game this season - for the Pirates, who entered the contest with only three home runs in the previous five games combined, the first three of which were losses to the Chicago Cubs.

"Especially after playing two tight games the last couple nights and especially coming off a sweep in our previous series, to come back and sweep this team was huge," McLouth said.

Gorzelanny (1-1) rebounded from a poor start in Pittsburgh's home opener in which he didn't get out of the third inning by allowing just one run and four hits. He walked four with one strikeout.

"I was a little more confident out there this time around," Gorzelanny said. "I was challenging guys to hit me, and I was letting them get themselves out. I stayed in the zone a lot more than I did last time and got some quick outs. It was working out."

Gorzelanny benefited from plenty of offensive support. Pittsburgh started the scoring in the bottom of the second when Doumit led off by blasting a 1-0 pitch from Reds starter Johnny Cueto into the seats in right-center field for his second home run of the season.

Luis Rivas gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead in the third when his two-out double into the left field corner scored McLouth, the previous batter who had been the recipient of Cueto's first walk of the season.

Pittsburgh took control of the game with a three-run sixth as Doumit's sacrifice fly to right scored McLouth and Nady followed with his fourth home run of the season - to left - that scored Jason Bay.

"We've been working awfully hard on a lot of different aspects of our game and still will continue to," Pirates manager John Russell said. "But today was good. I thought we played pretty good defensively, we pitched pretty well and got some big hits. It was one of those games we haven't had many like this...where all aspects of the game were there."

The sixth was the final inning for the 22-year-old Cueto (1-1), who had the worst start of his young career.

The righthander, who had allowed only three runs and six baserunners during his first two starts combined, allowed five runs and five hits - two homers - with one walk and six strikeouts.

"Johnny got some balls up in the zone and out over the heart of the plate," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "It was a bad weekend. We didn't play well in any department. Nobody's very happy about what happened here this weekend."

The Reds cut the deficit to 5-1 in the seventh on an RBI single by Ryan Freel, but the Pirates put away the game in the bottom half of the inning.

After Rivas drove in a run with a fielder's choice, Bay capped a four-run seventh inning against Todd Coffey, with a three-run shot to left - his third blast in five days.

The game, which completed the first Pirates' sweep over the Reds since July 23-25, 2004, was played in cool and wet conditions.

The start of the contest was delayed nine minutes by rain that continued off an on - sometimes heavy - throughout the game. Game-time temperature was 43 degrees.

"It wasn't as bad as it looked," Bay said. "We actually expected it to be much colder. It was wet and those aren't ideal conditions, but whether it's 10 degrees or 100 degrees, it's good to get a win."

Paul Bako and Freel each had two hits for the Reds, who scored only four runs in the series.

"The only thing I would say we can take out of this weekend is to try to forget it," Bako said.