Peter Diana, Post-Gazette photos
	Reliever Jonah Bayliss hands over the ball after giving up a grand slam against the Padres in the eighth inning last night at PNC Park.

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Early yesterday afternoon, a few of the Pirates' players gathered around the clubhouse's mammoth television, checking out the Milwaukee-Atlanta matinee.

	Pirates starter Paul Maholm pitched 7 2/3 innings last night, giving up four runs on six hits against the Padres.. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: GM says money will not decide top pick Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic Today Game: (RHP Shawn Chacon 1-0, 3.38) vs. San Diego Padres (RHP Greg Maddux 4-3, 4.20), 7:05 p.m., PNC Park. Radio:WPGB-FM (104.7). Key matchup: Maddux can still look like Maddux at times, but the Pirates have three players with encouraging histories against him: Freddy Sanchez is 6 for 11, Jason Bay 9 for 24 with two home runs and Jack Wilson 12 for 35. Of note: The Pirates are 3-27 when the opponent has more hits.

Yes, scoreboard watching in Pittsburgh.

And when the Braves pulled ahead, the room roared.

"Being in second place feels pretty good," shortstop Jack Wilson said shortly thereafter. "We're here watching the Brewers, the only team ahead of us, and I'm checking out what the Cubs are doing. It's a change. It's the first time I've watched other games with any real enthusiasm, and I've been here seven years."

Well, the Pirates remain second in the seedy Central Division for a second day, but Chris Young and the San Diego Padres dumped a bucket of cold water on any warm-and-fuzzy sentiment with a 9-0 annihilation last night at PNC Park.

Young pitched seven scoreless innings to outlast a nearly-as-efficient Paul Maholm, Khalil Greene gave him a grand slam of support and, as a whole, the Padres performed very much like the legitimate contender they are.

The Pirates?

Suffice it to say there are miles to go before being 5 and 1/2 games behind the Brewers matters much.

"It's going to take consistency," first baseman Adam LaRoche said after his 0 for 4 with three strikeouts cooled an 8-for-17 tear. "And that's not just consistency in winning. It's consistent pitching, consistent at-bats, good defense. If we're not doing all of that, we're not going to win a lot of series, and where we are in the standings won't matter much."

He paused.

"Tonight, we got beat. That's a pretty good team over there."

Led, on this night, by a pretty good pitcher.

Young once again dominated the Pirates, improving to 3-0 with a 0.76 ERA against the team that drafted him in 2000, then traded him for reliever Matt Herges two years later. He held them to four hits, struck out seven, and even his lone walk -- to the Pirates' hottest hitter, Jason Bay, in the seventh inning -- looked deliberate.

"It's the third time we've seen Chris Young, and we haven't been able to do much with him," manager Jim Tracy said. "There's something we're obviously not seeing."

There might be a reason: Young tends to start off opponents with a low fastball, taking advantage of his 6-foot-10 stature for extra downward plane, as well as a peculiarly late release point. From there, he gradually works up the ladder in the strike zone, going higher and higher with each pitch while staying with the fastball.

To the batter, by all accounts, the pitches look the same. And, given that Young seldom tops 90 mph, the temptation often is too great, and the batter hacks underneath.

The Pirates discussed all of the above beforehand, to no avail: Young threw 60 of 86 pitches for strikes, including a remarkable 23 that were fouled off.

As LaRoche put it, "He's the only guy in the league who can get away with throwing a fastball right down the middle."

"There's a deception factor there, for right-handed hitters especially," Tracy said. "We hit two balls on the screws all night."

Young, now 6-3 with a 2.42 ERA, shrugged at any suggestion he might have done something special.

"My fastball and command are my bread and butter," he said. "And my mechanics are pretty good right now."

And his spell on the Pirates?

"I'm confident every time I go out there."

Maholm nearly was a match for Young, pitching into the eighth inning with San Diego ahead 2-0 on manufactured runs in the third and fifth innings.

He got the first two outs of the eighth, too, and had one aboard when Jonah Bayliss replaced him and brought the rout. He issued an intentional walk, then an unintentional one to load the bases, and Greene cleared them with a drive off the top of the center-field wall that made it 7-0.

Josh Sharpless gave up two more in the ninth.

For Maholm, charged with four runs on six hits in his 7 and 2/3 innings, it was a second consecutive solid showing and another encouraging sign for the Pirates that their rotation could be deeper than just Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell this summer.

"Paul did fine," Tracy said. "He deserved better than he got."

Maholm credited a rediscovered aggressiveness early in counts.

"I'm coming hard into the zone early on. If they hit it, they hit it," he said. "You do that early, then expand your strike zone and make them hit your pitch."

For the right-handed relievers, though, it was more disappointment, which hardly is a surprise anymore.

Salomon Torres and Matt Capps aside, the Pirates have had mostly poor bullpen work from the right side, already having discarded John Wasdin, Marty McLeary and Brian Rogers, as well as losing Shawn Chacon to the rotation.

"We obviously didn't pitch very well at all, other than Damaso Marte, after Paul was out," Tracy said, referring to his lone left-handed reliever on the night.

The Pirates, shut out for the fifth time, have another tall order tonight in facing Greg Maddux to try to take the series.