PNC PARK Bucs' Vogelsong earns first victory, 6-3

Pittsburgh is three games above .500 since trading three of its best players.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Jack Wilson and the Pittsburgh Pirates are already looking ahead to next season.
Wilson drove in three runs and Ryan Vogelsong earned his first major league victory as the Pirates won for the fifth time in eight games, beating Cincinnati 6-3 on Monday night.
Pittsburgh is 44-41 since June 14 despite trading Brian Giles, Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez during the last two months.
"Those are pretty good players right there, and yet we've played really well since all the trades have happened," Wilson said. "We've got a lot of guys up here from the minors now, and they're really happy to be here. They're not taking it for granted and they're working hard. To me, the future doesn't look bad."
Vogelsong (1-1) broke in with San Francisco as reliever in 2000 and was 0-6 in 22 previous major league appearances, including four starts.
Out of minor league options after this season, Vogelsong won five of his last eight starts at Triple-A Nashville after spending most of last season recovering from an elbow injury.
He allowed three hits over five innings.
"It's been a long time coming, I'll tell you that," Vogelsong said. "Everyone dreams of winning their first game in the big leagues, so it's a very special night."
Smallest crowd at PNC
Not many Pittsburgh fans were there to witness it, with the paid crowd of 8,565 the smallest in PNC Park history. The Pirates said there were approximately 15,000 in the ballpark because of a ticket exchange program for season-ticket holders.
The fans who did attend were treated to a memorable home run in the first, when Matt Stairs hit a three-run shot off Todd Van Poppel (0-1) that cleared the right-field seats and rolled into the Allegheny River. Stairs has 18 homer this year.
"That was a big, big lift," Vogelsong said. "That took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. When you go out there with a 3-0 lead, it certainly relaxes you."
After Van Poppel walked Stairs and hit Craig Wilson with a pitch in the sixth, Jack Wilson doubled to make it 5-0. Jack Wilson added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to complete the scoring.
The Reds cut it to 5-1 in the seventh on D'Angelo Jimenez's RBI groundout, then scored twice more in the eighth as the Pirates committed two of their four errors.
Julian Tavarez pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save.
Van Poppel, making his third start of the season and second for Cincinnati, allowed five runs -- all with two outs -- in six innings.