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Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Freddy Sanchez celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to help the Pirates beat the White Sox, 7-6, yesterday at PNC Park and end a record 13-game losing streak. Click photo for larger image. 
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Matchup: Tigers (Kenny Rogers 10-3) vs. Pirates (Kip Wells 0-2), 7:05 p.m.
With one sensational swing, it was over.
Really, truly, amazingly, stunningly ... finally over.
Still, it took a moment for it all to resonate with Freddy Sanchez, even though it was his laser of a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning that lifted the Pirates over the Chicago White Sox, 7-6, yesterday at PNC Park, and lifted the burden of the franchise's modern-record 13-game losing streak.
"I thought I hit it pretty well, but I didn't know it was gone," Sanchez said later. "Especially someone like me, I can't assume it's going to go out. I was running right out of the box."
By the time he saw that a fan in the front row of the left-field bleachers had caught the ball -- and not backtracking left fielder Scott Podsednik -- it was OK to breathe again.
For Sanchez, who pumped his fist all the way from first base to home plate.
For his teammates, who streamed out of the dugout and mobbed him with the traditional bouncing-in-unison walkoff celebration.
For the 21,380 in attendance, leaping and cheering as Sanchez made his way around, then summoning him for a curtain call while chanting "Fred-dy! Fred-dy!"
And, above all, for Roberto Hernandez.
In addition to being the Pirates' best reliever, he has been their most outspoken voice, a leader in a clubhouse palpably lacking in that trait through this 27-53 season. But it was his mistake -- Jim Thome's tying, two-run river blast in the eighth -- that nearly sent his team careening toward loss No. 14.
"I'm just glad it happened to me," Hernandez said. "I can handle it and move on. I just feel bad for Zach Duke because he deserved the win."
Duke overcame another sluggish start -- four runs in the opening two innings -- to put up four zeroes. In those same six innings, the offense dinked away at Chicago's 8-0 starter, Jose Contreras, for six runs on 12 hits, all but one of them singles.
That, coupled with the general quality of the opponent, made a 6-4 lead seem sweet but hardly safe.
Salomon Torres pitched a scoreless seventh, and Hernandez came on, as he usually does with a lead, for the eighth. After one out, Rob Mackowiak singled, prompting Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen to send up Thome, one of the game's great sluggers, in hopes of producing the tying shot.
He was not disappointed: Thome crushed Hernandez's first offering, a 91-mph fastball, into the Allegheny River on a bounce to tie the score.
It was the 19th time a batter reached the water and, from the feel of it, the 119th time these Pirates have experienced such a downer.
"At the moment, it's a big letdown," Hernandez said. "Just knowing what we've been through ... we're out there scrapping for a win."
Tracy had three left-handers in the bullpen available to face the left-handed Thome, but he stayed with Hernandez because, as he explained, Thome did not represent the go-ahead run and Hernandez has been so reliable. He had a 1.50 ERA in his previous 25 appearances.
"That is not a guy I'm taking out in the middle of an inning," Tracy said emphatically.
Guillen, asked if he had been surprised, answered: "I'm not going to second-guess another manager. I don't know what he has in the bullpen. Roberto's a veteran, one of the best relievers in the game. He just made a bad pitch to the wrong guy."
Hernandez, against whom Thome was 5 for 18 without a home run in his career, concurred on the latter count.
"I've gotten Thome many times on inside fastballs," Hernandez said. "This one went right out over the plate. He got me."
Guillen had used reliever Cliff Politte for a quiet eighth and sent him back out for the ninth. His first pitch to Sanchez was a sinker, down and in, that Sanchez -- as maybe only he can among the Pirates -- adjusted his swing to reach down and rope it out of the park.
"That's bad luck for us, but you've got to give credit to him," Guillen said. "He's leading their league in hitting, and he really hit the ball today."
Sanchez matched a career high with four hits in five at-bats, including an RBI double in the sixth. That hiked his average to .363, one point higher than the Los Angeles Dodgers' Nomar Garciaparra for the National League lead.
The home run was Sanchez's fifth and, by his recollection, his first to end a game since "junior college, I think."
"He's been unbelievable," Tracy said. "I don't really have the words to describe the type of offensive player he is."
Sanchez sounded more relieved than exhilarated.
"It's a good feeling," he said. "You just hope you never see anything like that happen to us again. Now, let's do something and turn it around and hope this is all over."
Mike Gonzalez took the victory after a scoreless ninth, and the Pirates finally put to rest all that chatter about the 1890 Pittsburg Alleghenies and the 23-game losing streak that was the only one in franchise history longer than theirs.
"In the midst of losing 13 in a row, our club showed its mettle," Tracy said. "To have Freddy Sanchez walk the world champs off the field with a home run ..."
"It's just such a good feeling, to get this over with, to do it against that team and to see Freddy come through," Gonzalez said. "But especially for Roberto. For something like that to happen to him, it's like a freak thing. He's been so good and meant so much to us. It feels great to pick him up."
