Peter Diana, Post-Gazette photos Catcher Ryan Doumit is helped to his feet after his left hamstring was strained in the sixth inning yesterday against the Padres. Click photo for larger image. TODAY: Game: Pirates (Snell 5-3) vs. Rockies (Cook 5-5), 9:05 p.m. Where: Coors Field, Denver. TV/radio: FSN Pittsburgh/KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: Sanchez to remain starter says Littlefield Pirates Scouting Report: Colorado Rockies Cook: Pitcher that got away haunts the Pirates again Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Padres box score Game play-by-play

San Diego pitcher Chris Young didn't mow the Pirates down yesterday.

The NBA-sized right-hander mowed them up.

"He got his pitches up in the strike zone and we were not able to get on top of it," manager Jim Tracy said after Young gave up just two hits in eight innings in the Padres' 1-0 win at PNC Park.

Young (5-3), a 6-foot-10 former Pirates prospect, had a perfect game for 3 1/3 innings and a no-hitter going until pinch-hitter Jose Hernandez's single to left in the sixth.

He accomplished what most pitchers couldn't in the Pirates' mostly productive 10-game homestand when they went 7-3 -- he made the Pirates' batters look as if they were swinging anxiously at a pinata.

"His ball's kind of sneaky. It has a little late move on it," said Jose Bautista, who started at third base and drew a walk to break up the perfect game.

The Pirates came close to another hit in the sixth when catcher Ryan Doumit nearly legged out a leadoff infield grounder. But in trying to beat the throw from first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to Young covering first, Doumit reaggravated a strained left hamstring.

He fell to the ground and was helped off the field with what Tracy said could be a "pretty significant" injury. Doumit will be reassessed today, when the Pirates play at Colorado to begin a seven-game road trip.

Young, 27, struck out four, walked only Bautista and induced several flyouts. The Pirates put the ball on the ground just four times -- Hernandez's hit, Nate McLouth's ensuing sacrifice bunt, Doumit's near infield hit and Jason Bay's one-out triple in the seventh.

"[Bay] was the only guy in our lineup who had him figured out enough to drive the ball," Tracy said of Young.

In the second, Bay flied out to deep left. His triple in the seventh hit off the center-field wall on what looked like it would be a double.

"I'm actually surprised that they went as far as they did," Bay said of the two drives.

"On the second one, I thought he was going to catch it, and then when I saw it hit the ground, I could have stopped at second, but there was one out and we weren't getting anything [offensively], so I figured I would bust my butt to third and try to give us a chance to tie it up."

He slid in safely as the only Pirates baserunner to get beyond second base, but that's where he remained as Jeromy Burnitz popped out to the foul side of third base and Freddy Sanchez lofted a fly ball to right.

"A lot of us got jammed," Sanchez said. "He elevated the ball on us. He knew what he was doing, and we chased it."

Trevor Hoffman set the Pirates down in order in the ninth for his 12th save for the Padres, who got all the offense they needed in the third inning. Former Pirates outfielder Brian Giles' one-out single up the middle drove in Dave Roberts, who had led off the inning with a double off the top of the Clemente Wall just inside the right-field foul pole.

Pirates starter Victor Santos (3-6) gave up seven hits in five innings and did "a credible job," Tracy said, but his pitch count, 108, was high for the number of innings.

"They did a great job of getting deep in counts," Santos said.

Relievers Damaso Marte, Salomon Torres and Roberto Hernandez held San Diego to two hits in the final four innings, but the Padres already had the only run they needed for Young.

With 91 pitches, Young averaged just more than 11 per inning and reached a full count twice.

It wasn't that Young was overpowering in terms of velocity. He barely nudged 90 mph on occasion, with his fastball mostly residing in the upper 80s.

Burnitz said part of Young's success is in his motion.

"He's so tall that he's closer to you when he lets go of it," Burnitz said. "It's not like you look up and it's 95 mph. But he pitched a good game and located well."

Bay, though, said Young didn't throw the way he might have expected from someone who matches Randy Johnson as the second-tallest pitchers in major-league history.

"It's just deceiving," Bay said. "Usually, a big, long arm like that, you get big, long arm action -- and he is very big and lanky -- but he really short-arms the ball. It ends up jumping on you pretty quick.

"We just couldn't figure him out."

Pirates shortstop Freddy Sanchez makes a diving grab on a ball hit by the Padres' Chris Young In the seventh inning.