McLouth homers twice for Pirates

Zach Duke rebounded for a win in a 12-6 thumping of the Giants.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nate McLouth, dropped a spot in Pittsburgh’s order to get more opportunities to produce runs, homered twice while driving in three runs and Zach Duke won for the first time in nearly a year as the Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants 12-6 on Tuesday night.

Duke (1-2) was winless in six starts this season and 12 games since June 12 before taking a shutout into the seventh inning. He lost that on Daniel Ortmeier’s RBI double, and wound up being charged with three runs on eight hits over 7 1/3 innings — his longest start since he lasted eight innings in a 3-0 win over the Mets on Sept. 17, 2006.

Pirates manager John Russell flip-flopped the slumping Freddy Sanchez and streaking McLouth in his order and the move immediately paid off as the two combined to get on base seven times, score four runs and drive in five.

Sanchez, the 2006 NL batting champion who began the game with a .222 average, went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and reached base four times while leading off. McLouth, one of the NL’s biggest surprises this season, hit a two-run homer off Jonathan Sanchez during a three-run third inning and added a solo drive — his ninth — against reliever Brad Hennessey in the sixth.

McLouth, a part-time outfielder until this season, had three hits to jump his average to .333. Xavier Nady added a two-run double and now has 32 RBIs.

The two-homer game was McLouth’s second this season and the third of his career. He also homered twice on April 27, against the Phillies in the Pirates’ last previous home game. According to the team, McLouth is the first Pirates player to hit multiple homers in consecutive home games since Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner on Sept. 11 and 13, 1949.

Jonathan Sanchez (2-2) had allowed only six earned runs in 29 2/3 innings while going 2-0 in his previous five starts, but was lifted during a three-run Pirates fifth inning that made it 8-0. He gave up seven runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings, with Hennessey surrendering another five runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings.

The Pirates don’t regularly beat many clubs — they began the night a season-low seven games below .500 — but they have won 11 of their last 13 against the Giants, who dropped their sixth in nine games overall. They are 0-2 in a stretch that finds them opposing left-handers in six consecutive games.

Duke was replaced by left-hander Sean Burnett, who gave up Jose Castillo’s three-run homer in the eighth during his first major league appearance since Aug. 21, 2004. He needed elbow and shoulder operations after that, and spent most of the last two seasons rebuilding his arm strength.