Saturday, August 22, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Charlie Morton pitched into the seventh inning after a disastrous start in his previous outing and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-2 on Friday night for their fourth straight victory.
Garrett Jones and Lastings Milledge homered for the Pirates, who were in a 1-12 slide before their winning streak.
Morton (3-6) allowed two runs and six hits in 61‚Ñ3 innings to earn his first win since July 18 against San Francisco. He left his previous start last Friday against the Chicago Cubs in the second inning and was charged with 10 runs and seven hits in a 17-2 loss.
Chris Dickerson had two hits and drove in a run for the Reds, who have lost six of seven. Micah Owings (6-12) allowed five runs and five hits over five innings in his first start since he was placed on the disabled list July 27 with right shoulder tightness.
Jones’ 14th homer — most in the majors among rookies, despite his June 30 callup — went high into the elevated seats in right with Andrew McCutchen and Delwyn Young aboard and two outs in the third.
Milledge went deep with one out in the fourth, hitting Owings’ first pitch into the left-field seats for his second homer in three games after going almost a year without one.
Jesse Chavez got two outs in the seventh, Joel Hanrahan worked the eighth and Matt Capps finished for his 23rd save for Pittsburgh.
Dickerson singled with two outs in the ninth and Drew Stubbs reached on shortstop Ronny Cedeno’s error, but Capps got Joey Votto to ground out to end the game.
Owings scored the game’s first run in the third, on Votto’s groundout. Dickerson drove in the Reds’ other run in the seventh on a sharp comebacker to Chavez, scoring Paul Janish.
The Pirates activated left-handed pitcher Phil Dumatrait from the 60-day disabled list Friday and placed right-handed reliever Jeff Karstens on the bereavement list because of his grandmother’s illness.
Dumatrait, 28, had reconstructive shoulder surgery more than a year ago and has been pitching over the past month on a rehabilitation assignment for four minor league teams.