Snell earns rare win for Pirates

Ian Snell pitched his first win in 11 starts as Pittsburgh beat the Nationals, 3-1.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ian Snell is finally starting to pitch like an opening day starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Snell allowed one run while pitching into the seventh inning to earn his first win in 11 starts, helping the Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 3-1 Wednesday night.

“It feels good, but I’m not really worrying about personal stuff,” said Snell, who had lost six consecutive decisions. “As long as the team wins, I’m happy. That’s all we’re shooting for, not who wins what or how, just the team needs a win.”

Ryan Doumit homered for the third time in two games and also singled twice, and Freddy Sanchez had two hits and scored a run for the Pirates, who have won three of four. A day after blowing his first save of the season, Matt Capps earned his 16th save by getting Elijah Dukes to ground into a game-ending double play.

Snell (3-6) hadn’t won since April 12 and had lost four straight outings. He allowed one run on six hits and three walks in six-plus innings this time, striking out six.

“I kept telling myself ‘We need a win, we need a win’ all night,” Snell said. “It was real important. I’d like to see our team do something special here. I think we’re going to do something special. Right now, we’re playing good baseball, and it’s going to continue.”

As big of a start as it was for Snell, it also was a significant outing for Capps, who’s earned three saves pitching four consecutive days. It’s only the second time in his career that Capps appeared in four straight games.

The Pirates’ bullpen blew two late leads Tuesday night, and the team sustained its first loss all season when leading at any point after the sixth.

“For me personally, to get back out there the next night and kind of get everything out of the way and get it rolling in the right direction again, that was pretty big,” Capps said.

Washington has lost nine of its past 11 — scoring nine runs in the process. Most of that came off five home runs in a 7-6 win Tuesday, and the Nationals managed only seven hits against Snell and the Pittsburgh bullpen.

“We hit a lot of balls hard right at people,” Nationals manager Manny Acta said. “I felt good the way we swung the bat. Not always is that going show on the scoreboard.”

No Washington player reached third base until the sixth, when Jesus Flores doubled and advanced Dmitri Young to third, and it wasn’t until the next inning that Washington got on the board with Dukes’ two-out RBI single.