Pirates celebrate win over Yankees

The 12-5 win marked the first regular-season victory ever over New York.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jose Bautista and Ryan Doumit homered and the Pittsburgh Pirates turned back the clock nearly a half-century, beating the New York Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday night for their first victory against them since the 1960 World Series.

The Pirates had been the only team in the majors to not beat the Yankees in a regular-season game, getting outscored 49-19 while going 0-6 against them in 2005 and 2007. Until Tuesday, the Yankees had not played a game that counted in Pittsburgh since 1960.

Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski threw out the ceremonial first pitch to commemorate his memorable home run that beat the Yankees in 1960, still the only homer to end a World Series Game 7, and the Pirates took it from there by opening a 7-1 lead by the fifth. They finished with 19 hits, nine for extra bases.

And the Pirates’ first homer against the Yankees in Pittsburgh since No. 9 Mazeroski’s famous shot? Bautista, who wears No. 19, hit a two-run drive in the fourth — coincidentally, Bautista’s ninth homer.

Pirates left-hander Tom Gorzelanny (6-6) walked five and gave up six hits despite throwing only 47 of 99 pitches for strikes in six innings, but still won for the second time in six starts.

The Yankees are 120-84 in interleague play to the Pirates’ major league-worst 61-100, yet still lost their third in four games against a below-.500 NL Central team. They dropped two of the three to the Reds during the weekend in Yankee Stadium.

Ripping a page from history — the Pirates scored six runs in the final two innings to rally and win that ’60 Game 7 — they scored twice in the first against Darrell Rasner (4-5), who lost his fifth in six decisions by giving up seven runs in five innings.

Nate McLouth doubled and scored on Freddy Sanchez’s bloop single. Sanchez moved to second on the play when new left fielder Justin Christian fumbled the ball for an error, and Adam LaRoche added a two-out RBI single.

The Yankees, who had won eight of 10 and 13 of 18, were without offensive catalyst Johnny Damon because of a sore left foot.

Hideki Matsui (knee) also isn’t ready to play the outfield, so the Yankees called up the 28-year-old Christian, who had two hits and drove in two runs in his first career game.

Doumit, back from a five-game layoff with a possible concussion, hit his 10th homer in the sixth and LaRoche followed with only his third career triple before scoring on Rasner’s second wild pitch of the game, making it 7-1.

Robinson Cano had three hits, including a single in the second that was the Yankees’ first hit in Pittsburgh since Mickey Mantle’s ninth-inning single in Game 7. Bobby Abreu hit a two-run homer, his ninth, in the ninth.

Notes

Pirates manager John Russell, a former major league catcher, caught Mazeroski’s pitch. ... The Yankees were 7-2 in their previous nine, all against teams with below-.500 records. ... Every position player starter got at least one hit as the Pirates tied their season high of 19 hits, also accomplished May 31 against the Cardinals. ... The noisy standing room crowd of 38,867 was the third-largest since PNC Park opened in 2001.