Haraz N. Ghanbari, Associated Press photos The Washington Nationals' Cristian Guzman slides across home plate to score the winning run on a wild pitch in the ninth inning last night at RFK Stadium. Catcher Ronny Paulino is in the foreground chasing the ball.

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

	Xavier Nady walks past Jack Wilson after scoring the Pirates' first run of the game in the second inning on a double by Ryan Doumit. Nady then left the game with an injury. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates 'interested' in trip to China Gene Collier: It's time to send Duke to the minors MLB Amateur Draft: Pirates pick 4th, but they may have limited options Pirates Notebook: Burnett cleared to throw Sunday Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic TODAY Game: Pirates (RHP Ian Snell 5-4, 2.94) vs. Washington Nationals (LHP Matt Chico 3-4, 5.13), 1:05 p.m., RFK Stadium. Radio: WPGB-FM (104.7). Key matchup: Snell vs. Felipe Lopez, Washington's leadoff man. Lopez has faced Snell five times and has a single, double and two walks. Of note: Chico, 23, has lasted through the sixth inning in only two out of his 12 starts, but, somehow, the Nationals are 8-4 when he pitches, including 6-0 at RFK Stadium.

WASHINGTON -- If nothing else, Salomon Torres is cornering the market on devastating defeats.

And they seem to get drearier as they go.

"You just have to keep going out there," Torres said, eyes reddened, sweat still dampening his brow moments after the Pirates' 6-5 loss to the Washington Nationals last night at RFK Stadium. "It's very tough. One more pitch, and this would have been fine. Even that last pitch, a little more to the right, maybe he would have swung and missed ..."

His voice trailed off.

Which seemed fine because, by now, everyone knows how it ends.

Torres' bases-loaded wild pitch, a split-fingered fastball that hit the dirt as it headed toward Ryan Church's feet, ricocheted up off catcher Ronny Paulino's mitt and allowed Cristian Guzman to score easily from third base.

Wiped away was the Pirates' four-run rally to draw even at 5-5 in the eighth, the finishing kick coming on Adam LaRoche's three-run home run.

Wiped away were two scoreless innings of relief from Josh Sharpless and Damaso Marte.

And wiped away, for sure, were any lingering positives from Torres' perfect inning that was instrumental in the 7-6 victory the previous night.

"We did a great job to get back in the game," manager Jim Tracy said. "Unfortunately, the ninth inning didn't work out for us."

Again.

Torres opened the inning by striking out Felipe Lopez on a fastball up and away, but Guzman lined a single to right, and Ryan Zimmerman reached on a broken-bat squibber to third.

That introduced the now familiar uh-oh factor.

"Couldn't believe it," third baseman Jose Bautista said of having no chance to throw anyone out. "Not again."

Torres recovered to fan pinch-hitter Ronnie Belliard on a splitter, rekindling confidence in his favorite pitch, but his five-pitch walk to Austin Kearns filled the bases for Church.

For most pitchers, it would be nothing-but-fastball time. Not for Torres, who lives off his splitter.

As Torres put it afterward, "We win with the splitter."

"I'm not going to sit here and second-guess what kind of pitches he chooses to throw," Tracy said. "It's the same pitch he used in the last game to strike everyone out. He just didn't have the same command tonight."

First pitch was a splitter that Church fouled off. Encouraging.

Next was a fastball. Church, despite being a fastball hitter, stayed off it, and it was 1-1.

Another fastball next?

"No way. Not to him," Paulino said. "He chased that first splitter. If Sully threw that same pitch around the plate, he might have swung again."

Church never had the chance, and the Pirates blew a late lead or tie for the third time in the past seven games, all with Torres giving up the decisive blow.

He has had two good outings in that time, too, but those were immensely overshadowed.

"You cannot give up," Torres said. "That's not in my nature. I'm going to keep fighting, especially when it's my fault."

This one was not entirely Torres' fault, of course.

Starter Zach Duke was hit hard again, giving up five runs on nine hits and two walks over his six innings. Number of swings and missed he got from a Washington lineup that is Major League Baseball's weakest: One.

It did not help that second baseman Freddy Sanchez missed Guzman's first-inning grounder just to his left, for what was generously ruled a single and later led to the Nationals' first run.

And it did not help that shortstop Jack Wilson mishandled what would have been an inning-ending double-play bouncer in the fifth, stumbled and retired no one. That led to three more runs and a 5-1 Washington advantage.

The ball chopped upward at the last second, Wilson explained, and struck him in a particularly painful area.

"Awful bounce," he said.

An error was charged.

The Pirates' offense was not helping, either, mustering one run in five innings off Washington starter Micah Bowie, a 32-year-old journeyman with a 6.21 career ERA.

But that changed in the eighth, when Jason Bay's sacrifice fly off Jon Rauch made the score 5-2, and, with two men aboard, LaRoche launched Billy Traber's 2-1 fastball well over the 410-foot mark in center field for his seventh home run and a tied score.

"Great at-bat," Tracy said.

It would not matter.

The Pirates were left with another downer, too: Right fielder Xavier Nady, their hottest hitter of late, exited in the second inning with a recurrence of his left hamstring trouble.

He described feeling a "burning sensation" as he approached third base while scoring from home on a Ryan Doumit double and grabbed the back of his leg as he neared the plate. He was removed immediately.

Initial indications are that the injury is minor, but that remains to be seen. Nady initially hurt the hamstring April 21 in Los Angeles and missed 10 starts after that.

Ian Snell will try to pace the Pirates to a series victory this afternoon.