Williams notches 40th save
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Josh Fogg pitched six scoreless innings, Brian Giles and Aramis Ramirez homered and Mike Williams got his 40th save as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Florida Marlins 4-1 Saturday. Ramirez, waiting until the final month of the season to begin hitting the way he did last season, was 3-for-4 with two RBIs against rookie Nate Robertson (0-1).
The Pirates beat Florida for the second straight day.
The Marlins swept a three-game series between the teams last weekend in Miami.
Fogg (12-11), a winner only twice in his 11 most recent starts, was in command from the beginning, limiting the Marlins to five hits while not allowing a runner past second base.
Fogg, ending a four-game losing streak that dated to an Aug. 6 victory over Los Angeles, has the most victories by a Pirates rookie since Mike Dunne went 13-6 in 1987.
Scott Sauerbeck followed Boehringer with a scoreless ninth, and Williams became the third closer in the majors with 40 saves by pitching the ninth.
Williams, who has 40 saves in 43 opportunities, trails only the Braves’ John Smoltz (49) and the Dodgers’ Eric Gagne (48) in saves.
The left-handed Robertson lasted 4 2-3 innings in his major league debut, giving up four runs and seven hits. He was promoted after going 21-13 in the minors the last two seasons.
Robertson was in trouble from the start, allowing the first five batters he faced to reach base, with Ramirez driving in a run with a single.
Ramirez made it 2-0 in the third with his 14th homer, and Giles hit his 34th following Jack Wilson’s one-out single in the fifth.
Wilson had three hits a night after driving in a career-high four runs.
Ramirez, bothered most of the season by a slow-to-heal ankle injury that occurred during a mid-April fight in Milwaukee, is 19-for-45 (.422) with eight multi-hit games in his last 11 games. He has 61 RBIs, barely half the 112 he drove in during a breakthrough 34-homer season a year ago.