Pittsburgh edges Cleveland, 6-4
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Lastings Milledge drove in four runs, Andrew McCutchen scored four times and the Pittsburgh Pirates avoided matching their longest single-season losing streak in 120 years, ending a 12-game slide by beating the Cleveland Indians 6-4 on Saturday night. McCutchen reached base five times with a triple, single and three walks. Pedro Alvarez drove in a key run with his first career hit, a double, as the Pirates opened a 5-1 lead in the fifth inning of the rain-delayed game.
Pittsburgh has had only one 13-game losing streak in a season since 1900, from June 15-28, 2006, and had to win to avoid a second. The Pirates also endured slides of 14 games (1954-55) and 13 games (1916-17) over multiple seasons, and a 23-game streak in 1890 that occurred 10 years before baseball’s modern era began.
Milledge singled in a run off David Huff (2-9) in the first and tripled in two more in the third. Milledge and Alvarez had successive RBI doubles in the fifth after a McCutchen walk, with Alvarez’s opposite-field line drive down the left-field line making it 5-1.
Alvarez, the Pirates’ prized prospect, struck out six times while going hitless in his first 11 at-bats.
Milledge missed a chance for the cycle – he hasn’t homered all season – when he walked leading off the seventh and struck out in the eighth after Garrett Jones singled in a run.
Pittsburgh – winning for the first time since June 5 – nearly gave the four-run lead back as Cleveland loaded the bases following Russell Branyan’s three-run homer in the sixth off Jeff Karstens. Evan Meek, the fourth Pittsburgh pitcher of the inning, struck out pinch-hitter Travis Hafner to strand all three runners.
Pittsburgh’s five relievers combined for 3 2-3 scoreless innings, with Meek getting four outs and Octavio Dotel working the ninth for his 13th save in 16 opportunities. The Pirates won for the first time in eight interleague games.
Karstens (2-2) got the victory despite the shaky sixth, giving up four runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings. Both of Karstens’ wins have stopped skids, as he pitched six innings to beat St. Louis 2-0 on May 5 and halt a seven-game slide.
Huff struggled again, walking six and giving up six hits and five runs in five innings while losing his third consecutive start and eighth in nine decisions. He already has one more loss than he did while going 11-8 as a rookie last season.
Maybe it was the full house. The Pirates are 4-0 at home this season when playing before crowds of 30,000-plus, and a 1960 World Series reunion attracted 38,008. 1960 Cy Young Award winner Vern Law tossed the ceremonial first pitch, and World Series star Bill Mazeroski and NL MVP Dick Groat drew loud cheers.
NOTES: The start was delayed one hour by rain. … Indians rookie C Carlos Santana didn’t start after having successive multihit games. … Alvarez’s father and mother exchanged a hug and a kiss in the stands after their son got his first hit.