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CINCINNATI -- Shawn Chacon's 10-out start was a contributing factor to the parade of Pirates relievers that outlasted Cincinnati last night.
John Grabow's 29-pitch fifth inning was another.
As was Brian Rogers' allowing home runs to the only two batters he faced in the ninth inning.
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Game: Pirates (LHP Zach Duke 1-5, 5.56) vs. Reds (RHP Kirk Saarloos 0-3, 5.09)In the end, manager Jim Tracy used five relievers to get the final 17 outs of the Pirates' 9-5 victory against the Reds.
"We threw a lot of pitches to get through this one," Tracy said wearily.
And a lot of pitchers.
"We used a lot of people, but we had to," Tracy said. "We sure didn't want to lose this one for [dang] sure."
The Pirates had leads of 4-0, 6-1, 7-2 and 9-3, but could not coast.
"We didn't want to be where we were, but ..." Tracy said, his voice tailing off.
The mix-and-match from the bullpen began when Chacon, succeeding Tony Armas in the fifth starter's role, labored through the third, then wobbled again in the fourth.
Chacon walked in a run in the third, then faced a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the fourth with Ken Griffey Jr. due up.
This was a no-brainer for Tracy.
"With the guy who was coming up, we had to do what we did," he said.
Chacon, who was on a pitch limit of "about 90," according to Tracy, had thrown 80 pitches -- only 41 of them strikes.
"He'd run out of gas," Tracy said.
"I was real excited to be out there, and I think I let the adrenaline get me," Chacon said. "That caused me to lose some steam, and my mechanics were out of whack."
Tracy brought in Grabow to face Griffey, who grounded to second base four pitches later.
One crisis squelched.
In the fifth, Grabow walked three batters around an Alex Gonzalez single and handed the Reds their second run.
Tracy did not want to send out Grabow for the sixth, so he brought in left-hander Damaso Marte because Griffey and Adam Dunn were coming up.
Marte walked Griffey, but he got Dunn to ground out to end the inning.
Tracy ran Marte out again in the seventh to try to shorten the number of outs right-hander Matt Capps would have to get.
Two batters into the seventh, Tracy brought in Capps, who got the Pirates through the eighth.
Two runs in the top of the ninth -- an Adam LaRoche home run and a run-scoring single by Jack Wilson -- gave the Pirates a 9-3 lead. Torres should have been able to have had the night off.
But, when Rogers yielded home runs to Edwin Encarnacion and Gonzalez, Tracy summoned Torres because he wanted to stop any Cincinnati rally right away and keep Griffey from coming to bat again.
It all ended well last night, but there is not much certainty about which relievers can be used today. Jonah Bayliss, who had last night off because of a heavy workload in recent days, should be OK.
Beyond that? Well, it would be good if starter Zach Duke could stay on the mound a long while.
"Yes, it would," Tracy said. "Yes, it would."
Jason Bay drove in three runs and LaRoche and Xavier Nady homered to lead the offense.
The Pirates helped Chacon by presenting him with a 4-0 lead before he went to the mound.
The Pirates, who had their biggest inning this season in the 10th Friday night, had their largest first inning this season last night.
With one out, Chris Duffy walked. Bronson Arroyo retired Freddy Sanchez on a fly to center and seemed headed out of the inning.
Then, he hit LaRoche on the foot with a 2-2 pitch, and Bay lined the next one into the left-field corner for a run-scoring double. Nady, who entered the game 2 for 12 lifetime against Arroyo, drove a 1-1 pitch into the first row of the left-field seats, giving the Pirates a 4-0 lead.
They had not scored four runs in a first inning since Sept. 4, 2006 in Chicago in what became a 5-4 victory.
Tracy loved those two big hits -- which started the Pirates on a 7-for-15 night with runners in scoring position -- in the first.
"If you can pick up big hits often enough, that puts you in the upper echelon of teams," Tracy said. "That's what you're hopeful of."
The Pirates did more good stuff in the fourth -- again with two outs.
With Duffy on first, Sanchez singled to left. LaRoche lined a run-scoring single down the right-field line. Bay's double to left delivered Sanchez, and the Pirates led, 6-1.
"At some point, Adam LaRoche is going to get hot," Tracy said. "Jason Bay is going to get hot. Freddy [Sanchez] is starting to get on base. When all that happens, what does that do for your club offensively? How do you look as a club?
"We don't know how that's going to look because it hasn't happened yet? But, at some point, it's going to happen. I know this -- it was very, very encouraging to get eight RBIs from the four, five and six spots in the lineup.
Bay got his third RBI with a two-out single in the seventh.
