Bucs gift Maholm with 4 home runs

Associated Press

CHICAGO

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored 13 runs total in Paul Maholm’s first 10 starts this season.

On Saturday, they hit four homers and crossed the plate 10 times, giving the left-hander a comfortable cushion he’s seldom enjoyed.

The way Maholm was pitching, through, he didn’t need that much help. He mowed down the Chicago Cubs with a three-hit shutout, retiring the side in order in seven of the nine innings of Pittsburgh’s 10-0 victory. It was his first win since April 25.

“You go out there and you do everything you can to make sure the team has a chance. And I think I’ve done that,” Maholm said. “And today the guys broke out and scored a bunch of runs and made it easier on me. And going out there, every pitch wasn’t a nail-biter.”

Ronny Cedeno, Lyle Overbay, Chris Snyder and Andrew McCutchen homered for the Pirates.

Maholm (2-7) got his third career shutout in a place he’s always pitched well. He’s 8-2 in 15 career starts against the Cubs, including 6-2 in 11 starts at Wrigley Field.

He only needed 91 pitches to finish off the Cubs in a game that took 2 hours, 28 minutes.

“The main thing is that no matter where you pitch, if you execute your pitches and mix speeds it makes it a lot easier,” he said.

“That last inning my goal was to try to get it under 90 pitches, but I’ll take the 92 or whatever it is. It was just something to say you’ve done. With the run support, it was mainly just go out there, attack hitters and let the guys do their job on defense.”

Maholm retired the first 13 batters he faced before Alfonso Soriano doubled in the fifth, driving a ball to the center-field wall that McCutchen leaped for but couldn’t catch. Lou Montanez then reached on an infield single.

Darwin Barney reached on a two-out infield single in the ninth for the only other Chicago hit.