Braves close out trip with a trounce of the Pirates

By Carroll Rogers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

PITTSBURGH -- The Braves couldn’t get first place back Wednesday night, but they got a little sanity.

After scoring one run in two days against the hapless Pirates, the Braves unleashed some offense, just in time to salvage the series finale 9-3 and give some cushion to the resurgent Derek Lowe.

The Braves scored almost as many runs in the first three innings Wednesday (eight), as they had in the first five games of this trip (10). So while they finished this six-game swing to Florida and Pittsburgh 2-4, and one-half game behind the Phillies, they got to head home on a happy flight.

The Phillies beat the Marlins 10-6 to keep first place from the Braves. Now the Braves will welcome the Cardinals to town for a four-game series at Turner Field, where they are a majors-best 49-19.

“This was a must-win, really,” said Derrek Lee, who drove in the first run of the game to jump-start the victory in the first inning. “We needed this one. We didn’t want to get swept here.”

The Braves warded off what would have been their first three-game sweep by the Pirates since 1994.

They broke out with 14 hits Wednesday, collecting two-run singles from Alex Gonzalez and Martin Prado, three hits from Omar Infante, and Lee’s first two RBIs of September on a 2-for-3 night.

After going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the first two games of this series, the Braves went 5-for-15 in those situations Wednesday.

“We finally found some holes with men on,” manager Bobby Cox said. “Our luck had to change a little bit.”

The Braves ended a 16-inning scoreless streak with hits from three of their first four hitters. Lee, who had quelled a rally Tuesday with a double play, stoked one Wednesday with an RBI hit in the first inning. He reached base in each of his first four at-bats, including two walks. Gonzalez worked a two-out, two-strike, two-run single to left to give the Braves a 3-0 lead after one inning.

The Pirates loaded the bases with two outs on Lowe in the bottom of the inning, but he fired a 90 mph fastball on the black of the plate inside to strike out Ryan Doumit and get out of the inning. The Braves kept piling on from there.

“It was one of those situations where that was maybe a pitch you were trying to save for later,” Lowe said. “But that was a crucial pitch, even though it was the first inning.”

Lowe showed no ill-effects from the bone chip which had irritated his elbow, led to a cortisone shot and cost him the first start of his career. He allowed one run in six innings to win for the second time in his past nine starts. He moved to 10-0 in 10 starts with a 2.64 ERA against the Pirates.

“There was never any issue [with the elbow],” said Lowe, who moved to 12-12 with a 4.42 ERA on the season. “And you couldn’t have asked for a better scenario as far as we were able to score a lot of runs, and every pitch wasn’t life and death.”

Lowe started another rally in the second with a double to left center with may be the deepest ball the Braves hit in three games at PNC Park. He scored on a bases-loaded walk to Lee.

“I’ve never hit a ball over a fence at any level in my whole life,” said Lowe, who joked that he stopped at second just to watch it. “That was the closest I’ve ever come.”

The Braves batted around in the third inning and by then had chased two pitchers. Before it was over, the Pirates would tie a club record for a nine-inning game by using eight pitchers.

The Braves had lost three consecutive games, while facing three relatively unfamiliar pitchers. They had two starts and two relief appearances’ worth of history total against Alex Sanabia of Florida and Brian Burres and James McDonald of Pittsburgh.

When they saw Zach Duke, whom they had an eight-start history with, they looked relieved. The Braves rolled up six hits and four runs in the first 11 batters he faced. Pirates manager John Russell came for the ball after Duke had loaded the bases with nobody out in the second.