Snell and relievers blank D'backs, 3-0

The second-season pitcher continued his recent stretch of solid pitching.PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Maybe it was the frustration of not pitching in the majors like he had in the minors. Or maybe Ian Snell disliked being compared negatively to Zach Duke, the Pirates' other top pitching prospect.
Whatever it was, it finally clicked for Snell four starts ago and he has been a very effective pitcher since.
Snell, pitching like the top prospect he is supposed to be, limited Arizona to five hits over seven innings and Ronny Paulino hit his first career home run in Pittsburgh's 3-0 victory over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
"His fastball gets on you a little bit," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "He was using his breaking ball, a cutter, a little backdoor slider to lefties and down some down-and-in curveballs. They pitched better than we did, and we didn't swing the bat very well."
The Pirates reached the double-digit victory mark in their 34th game, leaving Kansas City and Florida as the only teams in the majors with fewer than 10 victories.
Settling in
While the last-place Pirates are running out of time to make anything of what is quickly becoming their 14th consecutive losing season, the 24-year-old Snell (2-2) seems to be settling in as one of the NL's best young starters.
The right-hander was in control from the start, never allowing a runner past second base while striking out five and walking one in a dominating performance.
"He made pitches in good spots," Luis Gonzalez said of Snell, who was 58-20 in the minors from 2000-05. "It was more of a frustrating night for us offensively. We felt we were seeing him pretty well."
Snell didn't have as many strikeouts as he did in his previous two starts, when he struck out 16 in 122/3 innings -- nine in 52/3 innings in his most recent start, against the Mets. But he didn't need them on a night he kept the ball down and permitted only one ball to leave the infield in his final four innings.
"It's starting to come around," Snell said.
Snell and Duke were considered the Pirates' top minor league prospects at this time a year ago, but Duke had much more success (8-2, 1.81 ERA) than Snell (1-2, 5.14 ERA) did after they were called up around midseason. Snell also struggled in his first three starts this season, yielding 16 earned runs in 15 innings.
Snell has since given up only five runs in four starts, including a 3-1 victory over Philadelphia on April 28 in which he pitched seven shutout innings.
Mixing pitches
"I didn't change anything," Snell said. "I've just been mixing my pitches up more, throwing more offspeed pitches. And it got around that I was a fastball pitcher and now it's like, 'Oh, well, maybe he's not a fastball pitcher.' "
Freddy Sanchez, getting an infrequent start at shortstop with Jack Wilson out with a sore hamstring, added a run-scoring double to support Snell.
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