Pirates’ Nady has three-run HR in only non-interleague game

The Diamondbacks made a cross-country visit to Pittsburgh and lost, 11-5.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Xavier Nady hit a three-run homer to help Pittsburgh open a seven-run lead in the only non-interleague series of the weekend, and the Pirates withstood a shaky start from Ian Snell to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5 Friday night.

Adam LaRoche, one of baseball’s best hitters this month after being one of its worst in April, had two hits, scored twice and drove in two runs as the Pirates halted a five-game losing streak against Arizona dating to last season.

Perhaps it was a confusing night for the Diamondbacks, an NL West team that made the first of two cross-country visits to Pittsburgh this season when everyone else in the majors was playing an interleague opponent. And the Pirates wore red jersey tops, a new addition this season that seemed more appropriate for the Diamondbacks’ new red-dominant color scheme.

Before the game, Arizona manager Bob Melvin joked the Pirates were Arizona’s new “natural rival,” a reference to interleague matchups this weekend featuring such series as Yankees-Mets and White Sox-Cubs. But Arizona starter Doug Davis (2-5), a frequent Pirates opponent while with Milwaukee, never got into a groove against a familiar team. He allowed 10 hits and seven runs in 4 2-3 innings.

Nady’s homer, his fifth, came in the third after Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay singled, and made it 3-0. The Pirates added four more runs after Davis walked the first two batters of the fifth, threw a wild pitch and then allowed four consecutive singles — LaRoche’s drove in two runs — before being lifted.

Snell (4-2) gave up more than two earned runs only once in his first eight starts and looked to be cruising with a 7-0 lead in the sixth, only to be lifted during a four-run inning that included Mark Reynolds’ run-scoring triple and RBI doubles by Eric Byrnes and Carlos Quentin.

But a possibly bigger Arizona inning was thwarted when Quentin was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Nady while trying to score on Robby Hammock’s two-out single.