Washington sent ten men to the plate in a five run fourth inning that was the beginning of the end of the game.
The first five batters in the fourth reached safely with Ivan Rodriguez – the fourth man up – hitting a two run single. Danny Espinosa singled and Justin Maxwell lofted a sac fly. After a successful sac bunt from John Lannan, Mad Nyjer Morgan singled off his old team to make it 5-0. I-Rod was back at it the next inning. Michael Morse singled off of Paul Maholm and Rodriguez followed with a two run dinger to push the lead to seven to nil. That was all for Maholm. He was pulled for Sean Gallagher and the Pirates bullpen finished the final 4-2/3 innings
Lannan was on his wasy to a nice outing. He allowed Andrew McCutchen’s fifth inning solo jack and no runs besides that one in seven innings. Washington added two more runs off the Pirates bullpen and Ronny Cedeno’s RBI double in the eighth was way too little and a little too late.
Maholm went 4-1/3 and gave up seven runs on eight hits. He struck out two and walked four.
The Good
Neil Walker’s hitting streak continued with a double.
Lastings Milledge had three hits.
The Bad
Ugh. Maholm’s outing.
Pedro Alvarez committed another error.
Washington committed three errors. But the Pirates were unable to capitalize.
The Rest
Maholm is 0-4 in seven career starts against the Nats. Lannan picked up his first victory in four career decisions against Pittsburgh.
Maholm has dropped seven of his last eight decisions over his last nine starts. His ERA is near 9.00 during that stretch. This is the second straight game he allowed at least seven runs.
Rodriguez had not driven in four runs or more in a game since 2007. This was his 30th career game with 30 or more runs driven in.
Milledge had not had three hits in a game since June 19th.
Bucs need to go 18-9 to avoide 100 losses.
