Pittsburgh righty Ian Snell gets a ground ball out from Cristian Guzman and a swinging K on a breaker from Elijah Dukes, but Lastings Milledge drills a low fastball back up the middle for the Washington Nationals’ first hit of the game. Dmitri Young strikes out swinging and Snell has a scoreless first...Pirates’ leadoff batter Nate McLouth smacks one off the wall in right for a leadoff double in the home half of the first. Freddy Sanchez beats Belliard glove-side for a single, moving McLouth to third. Line drive double pulled to left by Jason Bay, McLouth scores, 1-0 Pirates, Sanchez stops at third. Ryan Doumit grounds out unproductively to third. Xavier Nady matches with an equally unproductive groundout to Belliard at third. Lannan’s almost out...Adam LaRoche watches strike three all the way into Jesus Flores’ mitt. 1-0 Pirates after one.
Jesus Flores grounds a Snell fastball to second. Ronnie Belliard lifts a hanging breaker from Snell to left for a double. Felipe Lopez rips a liner, but right at Adam LaRoche, who fires to second too late to get Belliard. Snell walks Willie Harris, but gets Lannan waving weakly at strike three...Jose Bautista grounds deep to short, where Guzman fields and throws to first in time. Jack Wilson gets the second grounder by Belliard’s glove for a single. Ian Snell gets down a bunt, and Jesus Flores forgets to get the ball before coming up to throw, Snell and Bautista are safe. Ronnie Belliard fails to come up with a McLouth grounder, everyone’s safe, bases loaded. John “Cool Hand” Lannan calmly induces a double-play grounder from Freddy Sanchez to get out of the second.
Cristian Guzman punches a leadoff single to left to start the third. Elijah Dukes beats out the back end of the DP on a grounder to Jack Wilson’s backhand, a toss to second and Freddy Sanchez’s late relay to first. Milledge walks to put two on for DY...who grounds into the inning-ending DP...Guzman throws Jason Bay out for the first out of the Pirates’ third. Ryan Doumit golfs a chip shot to left. Dukes gets under a fly ball out to right from Xavier Nady. Lannan saws off LaRoche, and it’s 1-0 Pirates after three.
Jason Bay tracks a Jesus Flores fly all the way to the wall in left and makes the grab a step before smacking chest-first into the wall. Ronnie Belliard lines to short. Felipe Lopez flies to shallow left, and Snell’s through four scoreless...Lannan gets a ground ball to third from Jose Bautista. Jack Wilson tests Belliard’s backhand, but Belliard snaps at the liner and makes a lunging catch. Snell grounds through his mound-counterpart’s wickets for a single to center. Lannan drops a curve on McClouth and gets a swinging K to end the fourth.
Harris down swinging. Lannan down looking. Guzman makes contact, but grounds out to second for Snell’s fifth scoreless. Ryan Doumit gives Snell another run to work with, lining a hanging curve to left and into the first few rows for a 2-0 Pirates’ lead. Xavier Nady K’s swinging at a ball in the dirt, and DY forgets to cover the bag until it’s too late, Nady’s safe. Lastings Milledge saves DY from further shame when he dives to his right to rob Adam LaRoche of an RBI double. 2-0 after five.
Snell gets Dukes to chase a slider for strike three swinging in the sixth. Milledge backs X.Nady to the wall in right for a long fly out. DY with a shot at redemption? Single to center in front of Jesus Flores. Flores bounces one off of Jose Bautista’s arm and into the stands off third. DY takes third after it goes out of play. Belliard pops out to LaRoche foul of first...John Lannan gets three grounders to short for his own scoreless frame.
Felipe Lopez starts the seventh with a double to center that McClouth can’t catch. Willie Harris works a walk off Snell. Lefty Kory Casto’s gonna pinch hit for Lannan. But, when the Pirates got to lefty Damaso Marte, Aaron Boone gets the call for DC. Boone pops out to second. Guzman flies to left center where Bay and McClouth almost collide while making the grab. Elijah Dukes rips an RBI single up the middle to score Lopez. 2-1 Pirates. Milledge flies out to right. Stand up and stretch...”Wild” Joel Hanrahan drops a slider on Nate McClouth to get a swinging K. Freddy Sanchez drops a single into center. Hanrahan walks Bay on four pitches. Ryan Doumit flies to center, and Milledge can’t get in quick enough, bases load. X. Nady loops one over second, one run scores. 3-1 Pirates. Adam LaRoche chases a slider for a swinging strike three. Jose Bautista goes down swinging at the high heat from Hanrahan. 3-1 Pittsburgh after seven.
DY faces righty reliever Tyler Yates, and DY grounds out to second. Yates walks Jesus Flores, to bring up Belliard. Yates walks Belliard on four straight. Felipe Lopez lines the first pitch to left for the second out. Willie Harris grounds to first. LaRoche makes the play. The Nationals get nothing, but it sets up, a PH, Guzman, Dukes in the ninth...Jesus “Everyday” Colome’s gonna pitch the bottom of the eighth for the Nationals. Colome issues a one-out walk to Doug Mientkiewicz. Nate McLouth lines out to Dukes who fires from right field to first trying to double-up Mientkiewicz. Colome pops up Freddy Sanchez to end the eighth.
Langerhans, Guzman and Dukes due up in the ninth vs Pirates’ Closer Matt Capps. Ryan Langerhans works a leadoff walk. Guzman pops out. Dukes hits into a double play to end the game. 3-1 Pirates win.
Nationals now 26-41.