Pirates beat up again on Rangers as Snell has first complete game

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ian Snell pitched his first career complete game, Jose Bautista had three hits and three RBIs and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Texas Rangers 8-1 Wednesday night.

Jose Castillo had two hits and an RBI, Freddy Sanchez drove in two runs and Chris Duffy added a pair of hits and an RBI for Pittsburgh, which has won the first two games of the interleague series.

The Pirates entered the series having lost nine of 12 but have beaten up on the Rangers, who have lost 15 of their last 20 at home. The Rangers came into the night one of three teams in the majors with a worse record than Pittsburgh.

Lone run was unearned

Snell (6-4) gave up an unearned run and seven hits, striking out seven. He has allowed only three earned runs during his three starts in June, and his ERA, already eighth in the NL coming into the contest, dropped to 2.63.

Kenny Lofton and Frank Catalanotto had two hits each for the Rangers.

The Pirates had at least two hits in each of their first five innings and took an 8-0 lead, scoring at least one run in all but the third. They put six runners on base through five, and every starter except for Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Ronny Paulino and Snell had at least one hit.

Sanchez’s ground-rule double to center in the first scored Bautista, and Jason Bay followed with an RBI groundout to drive in Chris Duffy. Bautista had a two-out RBI single in the second to score Jose Castillo, and Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate Snell in the fourth.

That was all for Rangers starter Robinson Tejeda (5-7), who gave up four runs — three earned — and seven hits with three walks in four innings.

Four-run rally in fifth

The Pirates added four more in the fifth against Joaquin Benoit to put the game away. Castillo doubled to score Xavier Nady, and Bautista tripled to drive in Castillo and Paulino. Duffy followed with an infield single to plate Bautista.

The Rangers scored in the sixth when Brad Wilkerson’s line drive caromed off third baseman Bautista’s glove into short left. The play was ruled an error, and Catalanotto scored from third.

That was all Texas would get against Snell, who has allowed two earned runs or less in five of his seven outings at PNC Park and improved to 5-2 at home.

Notes

Coming into this series, Pittsburgh was 0-6 all-time against the Rangers. ... The Pirates are now 8-0 against teams from the state of Texas. ... The Pirates won back-to-back games at home for the first time since May 17-18 and have clinched winning their second series of the season at PNC Park in 10 tries. ... The Rangers have been outscored 50-20 in the first inning this season and are 10-44 when the opponent scores first.