Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Pirates starter Sean Burnett loses his glove on this ground ball but not his poise as he threw the runner out at first and won for the second outing in a row, beating the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2, yesterday at PNC Park. Click photo for larger image. More Pirates coverage Pirates Report: 7/5/04 Pirates SS Jack Wilson named to NL All-Star team Local Players in the Pros: Beimel is trying to regain his form

The Pirates' winning streak is now a cat-o-nine tails.

They won their ninth consecutive game yesterday by getting another effective performance from their starting pitcher, airtight relief and a long-awaited contribution from Chris Stynes.

Rookie Sean Burnett tiptoed through nine hits in six innings and pocketed his second victory with help from Mike Gonzalez, Salomon Torres and Jose Mesa, who snuffed a Milwaukee threat in the ninth inning to finish a 6-2 win at PNC Park.

Stynes, batting .209 with no home runs and 13 RBIs at game time, hit his first home run in the fourth inning and delivered a tiebreaking, two-run double in a four-run sixth inning.

"It felt good to finally do something personally to help the team," Stynes said. "It's been a long year. But that's not important. What's important is that we won the game."

The nine-game winning streak is the Pirates' longest since they won 11 in a row Sept. 12-22, 1996.

Burnett has given the Pirates three consecutive solid starts during the impressive run of starting pitching that has produced a 2.39 earned run average in the past 12 games. He has yielded only five runs in 19 innings in those three starts.

"I said three weeks ago I thought our starters would pick it up and get us out of this rut," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "The Bible says, 'A child shall lead them.' "

Burnett, 21, and Oliver Perez, 22, have helped stabilize a rotation that also includes "veterans" Kip Wells, Kris Benson and Josh Fogg.

"We know we've got some talented guys," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "They're young and we're going to have growing pains with them, but it's nice to see good starts back-to-back-to-back."

And then some.

"That's the key for us to be successful," McClendon said. "The offense has clicked a little bit, but the important thing is that you pitch. We all thought -- coming out of spring training -- that our starting pitching would be our strength. For some reason, they didn't [pitch well]."

Well, better late than never.

All-Star Jack Wilson gave Burnett a 1-0 lead in the first inning when he drove a 3-2 pitch into the left-field seats for his eighth home run.

That came just three hours after Wilson learned from McClendon he had been voted to the All-Star team by major-league players, coaches and managers.

"I went out to play defense in the first inning and I was nervous," Wilson said. "I haven't been nervous in two years. I was kind of freaked out by that. I was someplace I've never been before. The home run brought me back to my comfort level."

Milwaukee tied the score in the second inning, but Stynes' home run put the Pirates ahead, 2-1, in the fourth.

The Brewers tied the score in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Brady Clark, but Burnett's teammates picked up him with their four-run burst in the bottom of the inning.

Tony Alvarez, a .308 hitter in his past 5 1/2 seasons in the minor leagues, began that rally with a single through the middle.

"I think he's progressed to the point that we want to see what he can do," McClendon said. "I think he's got a chance to be a pretty decent player at this level as he continues to mature and get better.

"He's a wild player. He's a parts-flying-everywhere type player. He is what he is. He'll mess up. He'll do some good things. Hopefully, as he matures, he'll do less and less of the bad things. He looks like he has some power. He looks like he has some knowledge of the strike zone. And he can play all three [outfield positions] pretty solid."

Craig Wilson followed Alvarez's hit with a walk. Alvarez advanced to third on J.J. Davis' fly into right-center field. Stynes drove Chris Capuano's next pitch into the notch in left-center field, scoring both runners.

"Chris has been tremendous in the locker room," McClendon said. "He has not played the baseball he's capable of, but everybody on the club felt real good for him [yesterday]."

Tike Redman's infield hit did not advance Stynes, but it did finish Capuano.

Right-hander Matt Wise yielded a run-scoring single to Jose Castillo and a run-scoring bouncer to pinch-hitter Randall Simon before ending the inning.

Gonzalez took the Pirates through the seventh. Torres sent down the Brewers in order in the eighth.

But when Torres yielded one-out singles to Ben Grieve and Brooks Kieschnick in the ninth, he gave way to Mesa.

Mesa blew away Scott Podsednik and Bill Hall on 95 mph fastballs to finish pinning the "nine" on the tails.

KING OF THE HILL
The Pirates have been getting quality starting pitching in their last nine-game winning streak.
Starter	Opp	IP	H	R	Final
Perez (ND)	at Reds	7	3	0	1-0
Fogg (W)	at Reds	6	3	3	14-4
Benson (ND)	Cardinals	8	6	1	2-1
Burnett (W)	Cardinals	6	5	0	3-0
Wells (ND)	Cardinals	6	8	4	6-5
Perez (W)	Brewers	7	5	1	8-1
Fogg (W)	Brewers	6 1/3	5	2	13-2
Benson (W)	Brewers	7	8	2	5-3
Burnett (W)	Brewers	6	9	2	6-2