Sanchez lead Pirates’ sweep of Reds

The Bucs have 17 wins in August.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Freddy Sanchez drove in five runs in the opener, then tripled and scored the winning run in the eighth inning of the second game to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 victory and doubleheader sweep Tuesday night that slowed the previously surging Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds had won six in a row and nine of 11, only to be swept by Pittsburgh in a doubleheader for the first time since September 2000. The Pirates have won 10 of 13 and are 17-10 in August, their most wins in a month since they had the same record in May 2004.

Sanchez tied a career high with five RBIs and hit his second career grand slam as the Pirates won the opener 6-4. Sanchez also had a run-scoring single to help the Pirates hold off the Reds, who stranded 13 runners in the first game and 21 in the two games.

Setback

The Reds had made up 101⁄2 games in the standings since July 2 under interim manager Pete Mackanin, closing within 61⁄2 of the NL Central-leading Chicago going into the doubleheader, but dropped to eight back as the Cubs beat Milwaukee 5-3.

But while Cincinnati has been the NL’s hottest team since hiring Mackanin, who was Pittsburgh’s interim manager late in the 2005 season, the Pirates have been surging, too, though they remain so far down in the NL Central standings that their flurry hasn’t been noticed like Cincinnati’s.

The Pirates were coming off a 5-2 road trip to Colorado and Houston in which they blew a 4-1 lead Sunday in losing to the Astros 5-4, preventing a sweep.

In the second game, Reds starter Bronson Arroyo contributed a run-scoring double before leaving after six innings with a 2-1 lead, allowing six hits and striking out six with no walks.

But the Reds’ bullpen couldn’t hold the lead as the Pirates tied it in the seventh on pinch-hitter Matt Kata’s two-out single off Gary Majewski.

Red-hot bat

Sanchez, 5-for-7 in the doubleheader to raise his average to a season-high .312, tripled with one out in the eighth against Bill Bray (3-1). With the infield pulled in, Adam LaRoche singled up the middle to score Sanchez.

Sanchez, last season’s NL batting champion with a .344 average, is 44-for-114 (.386) this month, with hits in 11 of his last 12 games, and he has nine of his 11 homers since the All-Star break.

Shawn Chacon (5-4) got the final out in the eighth for the victory, before Matt Capps finished up for his second save of the night and his 15th in 17 opportunities.

Pirates starter Paul Maholm was lifted after seven innings, allowing 10 hits but giving up only two runs in a second inning in which Arroyo’s two-out double proved to be the big hit.

Norris Hopper followed with an RBI triple, the second of his four hits. He didn’t get a chance for a fifth hit as Ken Griffey Jr. pinch-hit for him in the ninth.

In the first game, Jason Bay also hit a solo homer for the Pirates, off Elizardo Ramirez (0-2) in the fifth.

The Pirates’ 43 homers in August match the club’s record for any month, set in August 1947, when Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner and Hank Greenberg were in the middle of their order.