May 12, 2003 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Arizona Diamondbacks certainly miss injured ace Randy Johnson. There’s no doubt they would be missing him a lot more if it weren’t for Miguel Batista. Lyle Overbay’s tiebreaking homer kept Batista unbeaten since moving into Arizona’s starting rotation, and the Diamondbacks held on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 Sunday.

Overbay drove in both runs as the Diamondbacks won for the second time in the three-game series and sent the Pirates to their eighth loss in nine games. The Pirates’ 5-13 home record is the NL’s worst, and they have lost all six series at PNC Park.

This time, the Pirates did little with Batista (3-2), who held them to one run and five hits in six innings. In his six starts since filling in for Johnson on April 16, Batista is 3-0 with three no-decisions and a 1.42 ERA.

“He was impressive,” Quinton McCracken said. “I don’t know how many bats he broke, but it probably was enough to make a bonfire.”

Now the Diamondbacks hope Batista can stay in the rotation. The appeal of his 10-game suspension for fighting with the Cardinals’ Tino Martinez will be heard Monday and, unless it is overturned or shortened, he might miss a start.

“He seems to be locked in, and it’s confidence,” manager Bob Brenly said. “He had a couple of shaky outings early … but his velocity is up and he’s throwing hard.”

Batista didn’t feel that well, perhaps because a steady, game-long wind kept blowing dust and debris across the field, and was lifted after throwing 91 pitches.

“I was dizzy,” he said. “I couldn’t stop sneezing.”

That wind didn’t prevent Overbay’s drive from carrying over the right-field stands leading off the sixth, a homer made the difference as Batista outpitched Pirates starter Kip Wells (1-2).

Overbay, a rookie, already has the reputation of laying off first pitches. Wells apparently tried to sneak a down-the-middle fastball by him, just as he did while striking him out in the fourth.

“I wanted to get that same pitch again and take advantage of it.” said Overbay, who came out of a 4-for-31 slump. “That’s probably as hard as I can hit it.”

Wells, Pittsburgh’s most consistent starting pitcher despite winning only once in eight starts, was hurt again by wildness while allowing two runs and five hits in seven innings.

He walked Luis Gonzalez with two outs in the first, one of 26 walks he has allowed in 51 1-3 innings. Matt Williams followed with a high-hop single that Wells couldn’t corral behind the mound and Overbay grounded an RBI single past second baseman Abraham Nunez into right.

Wells has a 2.05 ERA in four starts at PNC Park yet, given little run support, is 0-6 in 11 starts there since June 26.

“You hate to see him keep pitching this well and have nothing to show for it,” Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. “You don’t want him to feel he has to throw a shutout every time he takes the mound.”

Pittsburgh’s only run came when Nunez’s RBI single in the second scored Rob Mackowiak, who was hit by a Batista pitch.

Brenly used three relievers to get through the seventh and eighth innings before Matt Mantei pitched the ninth for his sixth save in seven opportunities.

Kenny Lofton doubled off the top of the right-field wall with two outs in the ninth, just missing a tying homer, but Mantei got Jason Kendall on a short fly ball on the next pitch.

“I was a little rusty, not pitching (since May 3), but a save is a save as long as it gets done,” Mantei said.