Bucs pull out 11-6 win over Phillies

Red-hot Freddy Sanchez led the Bucs with three hits including a homer.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Third baseman Abraham Nunez’s two-run throwing error put Pittsburgh in the lead for the first time and the Pirates withstood Philadelphia’s four-run first inning and two early home runs to beat the Phillies 11-6 Saturday night.

Freddy Sanchez, one of the majors’ hottest hitters this month, had a two-run homer among three hits and Paul Maholm (9-14) recovered from allowing six runs in the first two innings to pitch seven innings for the victory.

The Pirates own the NL’s worst record, but in a span of three days they’ve rallied from deficits of five runs, in a 10-7 victory Thursday over the Mets, and four runs against the Phillies to beat the NL East’s two top teams. Part of the reason they were able to rally is a reawakened offense that leads the NL in runs scored (120) and home runs (27) in August.

Scoring plenty of runs

The Pirates are only 9-8 for the month, but have scored plenty of runs — they’ve scored eight or more in each of their last four games and nine times overall.

The Phillies, who began the night tied for the NL wild-card lead with San Diego after winning four of five, easily lead the NL in runs scored with 666.

But starter Jamie Moyer (11-9) couldn’t hold leads of 4-0 in the first and 6-2 in the second against a team the Phillies had beaten the first four times they played this season.

With the score tied at 6, Xavier Nady singled and Adam LaRoche doubled to start the Pirates’ fifth. Nunez then bobbled Paulino’s grounder, forcing him to rush a much-too-high throw that sailed far past first baseman Ryan Howard — scoring both runners and sending Paulino to second. Paulino later scored on Jack Wilson’s squeeze bunt.

Good relief pitching

Maholm and relievers Shawn Chacon and Matt Capps shut out Philadelphia over the final seven innings, with Capps finishing up in the ninth.

Long before that, the Phillies looked like they would make it a rout. Jayson Werth, the fill-in right fielder with Shane Victorino injured, hit a three-run homer in the first following Howard’s RBI single. Within a span of six batters, the Phillies had more hits (4) against Maholm than he allowed in beating the Giants 3-1 Monday in a three-hit complete game.

The Pirates, who trailed 5-0 Thursday against the Mets before winning, came back with four in their half of the first on run-scoring doubles by Jason Bay and LaRoche, Nady’s RBI single and a Paulino groundout. Sanchez, last year’s NL batting champion, hit his eighth homer of the season in the fourth and is 27-for-68 (.397) this month.

Moyer, who was 4-0 in his five most recent starts, was lifted after being roughed up for nine hits and eight runs, seven earned, in four-plus innings. Maholm gave up 10 hits, but only three over his final five innings.