Matt Freed, Post-Gazette photos The Pirates' Chris Duffy can't come up with a double hit by the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal in the seventh inning last night.

By Chuck Finder
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The glass was half full, with Derek Lowe throwing a no-hitter one batter into the seventh, with the Los Angeles Dodgers packing a 5-0 lead for their charter to San Diego before the Pirates rallied for five runs in the final three innings for a chance to tie or win.

	The Dodgers' Rafael Furcal slides safely into third base ahead of the tag by Jose Bautista in the sixth inning. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: Torres set to return as closer vs. Yankees Stats Geek: Pirates have too many spinning plates

The glass was half empty, with the Pirates losing their third one-run game of the series, with the Pirates' slumber-company offense sending up three batters who each represented the winning run -- getting a walk and the final two outs by grounders.

However you gulp down your frustration, last night still left an aftertaste.

So this 6-5 loss to the visiting Dodgers last night broke a new glass floor for the Pirates. They stand a season-low nine games below .500, at 24-33. They have lost five of their past six games and 11 of 16. They have yet to win a series against a team outside what's known as the National League Comedy Central, going 0-4-1 and off to slumping Washington today.

But, from the half-full perspective, there was that late, ultimately futile effort. Again.

"We never gave up -- we put our best effort into tonight than we have in whenever," said third baseman Jose Bautista, who hit the only ball to leave the infield against Lowe (6-5) into the seventh inning and later homered off him. "A lot of times, we've been behind and it seemed like ... we never found a way."

"We easily could have put our tails between our legs and gotten out of it," added center fielder Chris Duffy. "We got momentum back. We just fell a little short."

The gulf between victory and defeat seemed so wide through the first six innings, so skinny the final three.

Lowe, after inducing a slicing flyout to right from Bautista in his first at-bat, appeared to be cruising for his second career no-hitter, after a 2002 job on Tampa Bay at Fenway Park with the Boston Red Sox. None of the 19 ensuing Pirates batters managed to sneak a ball into that outfield, five of them striking out and the others grounding out.

Lowe kept his infielders busy ... perhaps too busy. In the fifth inning, third baseman Tony Abreu twice made throws to first baseman Nomar Garciaparra that the former Gold Glover couldn't handle, allowing Jason Bay leading off the inning and soon after Xavier Nady to reach on errors. Around those baserunners, though, Lowe got Adam LaRoche to ground into a double play and Ronny Paulino to similarly ground out. Difficulty averted.

Dodgers starter Derek Lowe pitched six no-hit innings against the Pirates last night. He improved to 6-5 on the season. Click photo for larger image.

After a 1-2-3 sixth, Lowe slipped into trouble from the get-go in the seventh, holding an apparently commanding 5-0 lead after a long top of the seventh. He reached only his second 3-2 count of the game -- he struck out Nady the first time, in the second -- but walked leadoff batter Duffy. Freddy Sanchez, who was hitting .390 against the Dodgers since the start of last season but was hitless in his first two at-bats against Lowe, then plunked a 1-0 pitch up the middle to break up the no-hit bid. Without delay, the Pirates then broke it up in a big way.

Bay's fielder's-choice grounder, hit sharply down the third-base line and forcing Abreu to make a dandy, diving stop, scored Duffy from third. LaRoche reached on another fielder's choice. And Nady clubbed a 1-0 Lowe pitch into the sculpted shrubbery beyond center field, giving him homer No. 9 of the season and paring the Los Angeles lead to 5-3.

Russell Martin homered off Josh Sharpless in the eighth, but it was a wash in the bottom of the inning once Bautista bopped one to left, his fourth of the season. That sent Lowe to the showers with a 6-4 lead and only three fly balls permitted: Bautista's opening out, and the late homers by Nady and Bautista.

"He was throwing quality pitches," Bautista said. "He was just pounding the strike zone down low. He made us swing the bat. Maybe he started getting a little tired. He was lifting the ball up a little when he tried to throw strikes" later in the game.

The Pirates scratched out another run, on a LaRoche double that scored Sanchez after a single, but Nady, Paulino and Jack Wilson couldn't muster a hit off reliever Jonathan Broxton, who was a shade wild with his 100-mph fastball yet still notched his first save of the season.

"The one big hit that we need, it continues to avoid us," manager Jim Tracy said.

Paul Maholm (2-8) was throwing a four-hitter and trailing, 1-0, before he gave up a run and another hit in the sixth. He came undone in the seventh, though, when Wilson and Duffy got gloves on balls that were scored as hits and drove in three additional runs.

"If Duffy catches that ball, it's a completely different game," Wilson said.

"I should have caught it," Duffy explained of the ball hit well to his left. "I'm going to lose sleep over it."

But Bautista cautioned that this was a game to forget. As he put it: "We just have to flush it out of our heads."