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Print Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Freddy Sanchez is tagged out at home by Dodgers catcher Mike Lieberthal in the first inning at PNC Park last night. |
The first time, in essence, came after Ian Snell had given the Pirates eight exemplary innings.
The second time came moments after left fielder Jason Bay squeezed the final out of Capps' first career save as a closer, a 1-2-3 breeze that completed a 3-1 throttling of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bay met Capps in the team's handshake line and tucked the ball in Capps' mitt.
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Peter Diana, Post-Gazette The Pirates' Tony Armas congratulates closer Matt Capps after beating the Dodgers, 3-1. Click photo for larger image. 
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Game: Pirates (LHP Tom Gorzelanny 6-3, 2.39) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (RHP Brad Penny 7-1, 2.06), 1:35 p.m., PNC Park.
"That was pretty cool," Capps said later, smiling. "I had one other save last year, but this was a little different."
It must have felt different for manager Jim Tracy, as well, and not just because his team ended a three-game losing streak.
Tracy had been visibly frustrated in recent days by the bullpen's inability to bridge the gap from his starter to his late-inning relievers. And, to be sure, once the game got to that late stage, he had been dissatisfied with previous closer Salomon Torres' propensity for walks.
Neither end of the equation ever seemed in doubt on this night.
Snell limited Los Angeles to one run and six hits over his eight innings, striking out six.
And Capps took that 3-1 lead and went right after all three of his batters in typically aggressive fashion: Pinch-hitter Russell Martin lined out to center fielder Chris Duffy on the first pitch. Andre Ethier lasered his second pitch to the gap in right-center, but Duffy tracked it down. And Tony Abreu's second pitch resulted in the lazy fly to Bay.
Five fastballs, good night.
"I was saying it the other day when we made the change in closers: If you're going to get to Matt Capps, you're going to have to do it with the bat," Tracy said. "He went out there with a two-run lead, and he got after them."
Which, according to Capps, did not exactly represent a departure for him.
"Whether it was the seventh or eighth inning, I've always gone after guys, tried to get strike one and ... well, they were swinging," he said. "They were swinging hard."
He laughed.
"With Chris Duffy in center field, you can do that. I thought the second one was a hit, but he made a very difficult catch look easy."
Any jitters?
"Once I got out on the mound, everything felt the same. It was just good to get it out of the way."
Capps could not have been much more satisfied than Snell, especially given how the final two innings of his start played out.
In the seventh, with men at second and third and one out, he got pinch-hitter Wilson Betemit and Juan Pierre to hack over blistering third-strike curveballs. There were eight pitches in all, three touching dirt.
"I just wanted to throw that curveball down as hard as I could," Snell said.
"Nasty," Tracy said.
In the dugout, pitching coach Jim Colborn asked Snell, whose pitch count was at 96, if he felt fresh enough for another inning.
Snell's reply: "I felt good."
It did not show immediately, as he walked Rafael Furcal on four pitches. But he then zipped through the heart of Los Angeles' order: Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent and Luis Gonzalez.
The crowd of 31,931 stood and roared as Snell walked off, then high-fived teammates on the dugout steps.
"I was lovin' it," Snell said. "It was a big crowd, and we were trying to get the team back on track. Awesome."
That might be how some would describe Snell's year to date, his 5-4 record notwithstanding: He has a 2.94 ERA, a staff-best 64 strikeouts, and opponents are batting .233.
"Just a fabulous pitching performance," Tracy said. "Pretty much the way he's been pitching all season."
The offense squeezed out three runs, this despite squandering chances for more against the Dodgers' erratic starter, Hong-Chih Kuo, and yet another mammoth baserunning blunder.
The Pirates opened with three hits in a row off Kuo, the third of those an RBI single by Freddy Sanchez. After an out, Xavier Nady was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Adam LaRoche walked for another run.
But Sanchez was thrown out by a wide margin trying to score on Ronny Paulino's flyout to end that inning, and Kuo was allowed to exit in the fifth without further damage.
Nady homered to lead off the sixth and put the Pirates ahead, 3-1, sending Brett Tomko's lifeless sinker into the visitor's bullpen beyond center field for his eighth of the year. That came after a 1-for-13 slide.
"It was nice to get all of one for a change," Nady said.
There, too, the Pirates could have had more.
LaRoche and Paulino doubled immediately after Nady's blast, but, incredibly, for a second consecutive game, back-to-back doubles failed to produce a run. This time, LaRoche went back to tag second while Ethier was chasing the ball to the Clemente Wall, rather than go halfway to third.
If the catch is made, the runner has an easy time retreating.
If not, he has an easy time scoring.
LaRoche wound up at third base and, just as happened when Sanchez had the same lapse the previous night, would not score.
"We made a mistake," Tracy said. "We're going to clean it up. I'm not going to criticize a guy. We know we made a mistake."
Before that inning expired, two more men were thrown out at home, raising the Pirates' total to three: LaRoche was caught in a rundown on Jack Wilson's fielder's choice because Paulino strayed from second and forced him to abandon third. Then, Paulino was tagged halfway to home after a failed suicide squeeze. Snell tried to bunt, but Tomko's pitch was well outside.
The Pirates reclaimed second place, 6 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.
