Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

speakup

An electrical outage and a 25-minute delay couldn't stop Jose Bautista.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Charles Dharapak

Washington Nationals second baseman Cristian Guzman, right, fields the ball as Pittsburgh Pirates' Nate McLouth is safe at second after hitting a double during the third inning.

He homered twice and drove in four runs to help Pittsburgh beat Washington 11-4, ending the Nationals' season-high four-game winning streak. "He's been working awfully hard with the hitting coach (Don Long) to correct a couple of things we thought would make him better, and he's really stayed with it," Pirates manager John Russell said of Bautista. "He's gotten much better every game."

Bautista said Long's tweaks to his stance didn't give him more power, but provided a better foundation for success at the plate.

"With me, I think it's getting into a good hitting position on time and being able to hit the ball," he said. "A lot of times, I get into a good position, but then I miss my pitch. I've just got to make sure I can capitalize on them when I get them."

Ryan Doumit and Chris Gomez had two RBIs apiece for the Pirates.

The game was delayed in the bottom of the fourth when rows of lights along the left and right-field lines went dark. Umpires huddled with Nationals Park operations staff before the teams retreated to their dugouts to wait out the power failure.

Damaso Marte (2-0) pitched two hitless innings, and the Pirates bullpen gave up one hit in five innings.

Elsewhere in the NL it was: Atlanta 2, Cincinnati 0; Florida 6, San Diego 4; Houston 7, Milwaukee 4; Philadelphia 6, San Francisco 5; St. Louis 5, Chicago 3; New York 7, Arizona 2; and Los Angeles 11, Colorado 6.

At Washington, the Pirates took a 6-0 lead in the third, sending nine men to the plate and breaking John Lannan's scoreless streak at a Nationals-record 21 innings.

"He just didn't have it. He's human," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "I'm not expecting him every five days to go out there and throw seven scoreless innings for us. His location just wasn't there."

Nate McLouth led off with a double and Jason Bay drew a one-out walk before consecutive run-scoring singles to centre by Doumit and Xavier Nady. Doug Mientkiewicz followed with a slowly hit fielder's choice to short, but second baseman Felipe Lopez mishandled Cristian Guzman's throw and Doumit scored.

Bautista then ripped Lannan's 1-2 pitch over the centre-field wall for his second homer of the season.

Lannan (2-3) left after allowing six runs - five earned - on six hits and two walks in three innings.

"I really didn't have anything on my slider, or anything else. They fouled off pitches, they battled and waited for a pitch to hit," Lannan said. "I made some mistakes and stunk today."

Lopez hit an RBI double in the third, but Doumit's run-scoring single in the fourth made it 7-1.

Pirates starter Phil Dumatrait retired the first eight hitters, but struggled after the lighting malfunction, which followed Ryan Zimmerman's leadoff infield single in the fourth. The left-hander allowed a one-out double to Lastings Milledge and walked Austin Kearns to load the bases, then allowed Wily Mo Pena's sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Wil Nieves.

Bidding for his first major league victory, Dumatrait was undone by the delay.

"I was throwing the ball pretty well and it took me out of the groove. ... Obviously, after the delay I wasn't as sharp," he said. "A couple times, I went down into the cage, tried to play catch and tried to stay loose."

Bautista added a fifth-inning solo homer off Mike O'Connor for his second career two-homer game.

Dumatrait went four innings, giving up four runs on six hits, walking one and striking out four.

Gomez added a two-run single in the seventh, making it 10-4. Bay had an RBI double in the eighth.

Braves 2, Reds 0

At Atlanta, Tim Hudson pitched his 11th career shutout and Brian McCann hit a two-run homer Friday night, helping the Braves end a season-high four-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

-

Marlins 6, Padres 4

At Miami, Dan Uggla hit two home runs and Mark Hendrickson pitched seven effective innings to lead Florida to the win.

-

Astros 7, Brewers 4

At Houston, Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee hit consecutive home runs in a four-run sixth inning for the Astros.

-

Phillies 6, Giants 5 (10 innings)

At Philadelphia, Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Phillies to the win.

-

Cardinals 5, Cubs 3

At St. Louis, Skip Schumaker hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning, taking struggling closer Jason Isringhausen off the hook in the Cardinals' 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday night.

-

Mets 7, Diamondbacks 2

At Phoenix, Jose Reyes had four hits and was thrown out at the plate in the eighth inning while trying to complete the cycle with an inside-the-park homer, leading New York to the win.

-

Dodgers 11, Rockies 6

At Denver, Rafael Furcal had three hits, including a three-run homer in a seven-run sixth inning, and Los Angeles won its seventh straight game.

-

It's not what he's used to, but Shannon Stewart's new role and a different spot in the batting order is quickly paying off for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Batting fifth on this night, Stewart delivered the key blow in the first with his two-out, two-run single. The rare clutch hit gave a terrific Shaun Marcum (3-2), who was battling a stomach virus and threw up after each of the first two innings, and the Blue Jays (13-17) all they would need to collect their second straight shutout win.

"When I was warming up, my stomach felt like it wasn't going to be able to keep anything down," said Marcum. "I threw up after the first and the second, but other than that I was able to hang with it."

The victory was just their fifth in the past 16 games and opened a seven-game homestand before a crowd of 21,057 on the right foot, after a bleak 2-7 road trip raised questions about the future of manager John Gibbons.

An inability to deliver with runners in scoring position - they were an astonishingly awful .116 (14-for-121) in their previous 15 games - was largely responsible for their woes, and Stewart's early single took some of the pressure off.

"It was big," said Gibbons. "The one thing about Stewie is he's hit his whole career. A lot of times you need those steady bats to get you going when you get off to a slow start. He'll be a big part of this if we're going to do anything."

Elsewhere in the AL it was: New York 5, Seattle 1; Minnesota 11, Detroit 1; Baltimore 4, Los Angeles 3; Texas 4, Oakland 3; and Boston 7, Tampa Bay 3.

At Toronto, with two out in the first, Scott Rolen reached on a Joe Crede throwing error and Vernon Wells followed with a ground rule double off Mark Buehrle (1-3). Stewart, predominantly a leadoff hitter in his career, looked a lifelong run producer by shooting a ball up the middle to make it 2-0.

He went 2-for-3 while collecting his fifth and sixth RBIs of the season.

"It's been different. You do something for 15 years one way and now all of a sudden they say we want you to do it this way," Stewart - who has also batted first, second, sixth, seventh and eighth this season - said before the game. "When you lead off, I've been so set to take pitches trying to work my way on, now I'm not so comfortable. There are some pitches that I'm taking that I should swing at.

"Some guys, their game is to swing the bat. My game has been moulded to get on base, average, some power here and there. When I'm down there in the order, it's like, 'Damn, maybe I should be swinging."'

Marcum (3-2), with a nice assist from the bullpen, made it hold up with 6 2-3 dominating innings against the AL-Central leading White Sox (14-13). He struck out nine, which ran up his pitch count and forced his early exit, but gave up just two hits and three walks.

The final two free passes came with two down in the seventh and Jeremy Accardo had to come on escape the jam. He got Juan Uribe on a fly ball to right after a walk to Brian Anderson.

Jesse Carlson pitched a scoreless eighth and with B.J. Ryan unavailable because he pitched Thursday, Shawn Camp picked up one out in the ninth before Scott Downs wrapped things up for his second save.

Yankees 5, Mariners 1

At New York, Chien-Ming Wang became the American League's first six-game winner, ending the Yankees' three-game losing streak on a chilly night in the Bronx.

-

Twins 11, Tigers 1

At Minneapolis, Livan Hernandez baffled Detroit's mighty offence for seven innings and the Twins beat up the Tigers' normally reliable bullpen.

-

Orioles 4, Angels 3

At Anaheim, Calif., Jeremy Guthrie won for the first time in 16 starts, Nick Markakis and Melvin Mora each drove in two runs and Baltimore began a 10-game road trip with a win.

-

Rangers 4, Athletics 3

At Oakland, Calif., Milton Bradley had three hits against his former team, and Texas took advantage of four errors for its first three-game winning streak of the season.

-

Red Sox 7, Rays 3

At Boston, Dustin Pedroia drove in three runs, including a two-run single in a five-run fourth inning that gave the Red Sox its third win in nine games.