Pirates complete sweep of Cincinnati

Pittsburgh is hitting and pitching better than in past Aprils.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates went from being swept by the Cubs to sweeping the Reds in the same home stand. No doubt it wasn’t a coincidence Tom Gorzelanny looked like two different pitchers during his two starts of the unusual week.

Ryan Doumit, Xavier Nady and Jason Bay homered and Gorzelanny bounced back from one of his worst career starts to outpitch Cincinnati rookie Johnny Cueto, leading the Pirates to a 9-1 victory Sunday and their first series sweep in nearly a year.

Gorzelanny (1-1), becoming the only Pirates starter other than Ian Snell to win this season, limited the Reds to one run and four hits despite walking four over 61‚Ñ3 innings. He was coming off a no-decision Monday when he allowed seven runs in 21‚Ñ3 innings of the Pirates’ home opener against the Cubs, matching the shortest start of the 47 he has made in the majors.

“I was more confident, I was challenging guys and I let them get themselves out,” said Gorzelanny, a 14-game winner last season. “I stayed in the strike zone a lot more than I did the last time. We worked on a lot of things between starts and I went back to attacking hitters.”

It was the Pirates’ first sweep at home since they took three against the Astros last April 24-26. They hadn’t swept Cincinnati since July 23-25, 2004.

Maybe it’s only 12 games, but the Pirates are 6-6 and, despite losing twice against the Cubs in extra innings with rookie relievers on the mound, they are hitting and pitching better than they have in April the last few seasons.

Maybe it’s a little too early for the Pirates to talk about ending that streak of 15 consecutive losing seasons, but Bay sees a lot of positives even though they also were 6-6 a year ago.

“I think people are reluctant to say we have to get off to a good start, but for the five years I’ve been here I’ve always been one of those people who say we need to get off to a good start,” Bay said. “If you get too far behind early, it’s hard to dig out of that hole. Those last three games [against the Cubs], we could have put ourselves in a hole but we came back and played very well.”

Doumit hit a solo homer in the second and added a sacrifice fly, Nady hit a two-run shot in the sixth and Bay added a three-run drive in the seventh against reliever Todd Coffey as the Pirates had an easy one after winning one-run decisions the previous two nights.

“To come back after being swept to sweep is huge,” Nate McLouth said.