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Go back to opening day.
That was the last time the Pirates had three consecutive batters, in the so-called meat of their order, combine for seven RBIs. Garrett Jones, Ryan Doumit and Lastings Milledge were their Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters.
The next time? Game No. 134, and it marked the first time that their Nos. 4, 5 and 6 batters combined for so many: Jones, Pedro Alvarez and Doumit.
A good thing came to those Pirates who waited: They won Friday, 8-5.
"You know what? I can believe that," said Ryan Doumit, who like Alvarez drove in two runs behind Jones with three to propel the Pirates to victory against the Washington Nationals before 19,734 at PNC Park. "It's nice to have an offensive output like that for our team."
Game: Pirates vs. Washington Nationals, 7:05 p.m., PNC Park.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: LHP Paul Maholm (7-13, 5.18) vs. LHP John Lannan (6-6, 4.95).
Key matchup: Maholm goes for victory against Washington -- he's 0-3 with a 5.30 ERA in six career starts vs. the Nationals.
Of note: Nationals 1B Adam Dunn is 3 for 28 (.107) with 12 strikeouts career against Maholm.
"If we could do that, we'd win a lot more games," Jones continued.
Seriously.
It was a first for this group, too.
In their 33rd game bunched together in the order, their 6-for-10, seven-RBI night also constituted the inaugural time that Jones, Alvarez and Doumit each drove in a single run in the same game.
Let alone a minimum of two apiece.
"I believe that, too," Doumit said.
"A good offensive game," Jones added of a Pirates team that is batting .240 for the season but went 11 for 32 against the Nationals. "Had some key hits with men on base. Everybody swung the bat well, throughout the lineup. Did some damage."
Particularly Jones. He was mired in a slump where he basically homered (three times), singled (five times) or struck out (17 times). In all, he was 8 for 53 in his past 60 plate appearances, for a .150 average
Jones gathered his first double in those 60 plate appearances, since Aug. 16, when he brought home two runs with two out in the third inning.
"I know," Jones said. "It felt like I hadn't had a double in a while."
Then, in his next time up, he doubled again -- equaling his output since July 29, a span of about 32 games -- and drove in another run.
Alvarez followed with a two-run double.
Then Doumit followed with a single to score Alvarez and present the Pirates with an 8-1 advantage.
Doumit homered an inning earlier, in the fourth.
A third of his 12 homers have come against National League East teams such as Washington, and another third have come in Milwaukee.
But this night, the middle was meaty, all right. This came against Livan Hernandez (9-10), who entered with a 3.49 ERA.
"We did our best to inflate that," Doumit said.
Hernandez exited after eight runs on eight hits one out into the fifth inning, his ERA inflated to 3.81.
"They're the type of hitters that'll go through a dead spell for a little bit," manager John Russell said of the lineup's middle, the part from where the home runs are supposed to come.
Jones missed one Friday, on that fifth-inning double that Nyjer Morgan leaped and missed as it bounced off the very top of the padded wall.
"Another two inches or so," Jones mused. "Maybe it would hit his glove" and go over.
"At least I was able to get one run in," he added. "Pedro got a big hit right after." Alvarez doubled to plate two more.
The Nationals rallied with a four-run inning, chasing Zach Duke (7-12). The bullpen didn't staunch the bleeding much the rest of the sixth inning, Sean Gallagher allowing two more RBI hits that went against Duke's slate.
No matter, for Wil Ledezma, Chan Ho Park, Brian Burres and Chris Resop (with three strikeouts in four batters in the eighth) combined for two scoreless innings to set up the ninth for someone familiar to Washington: The Nationals failed closer from last year, Joel Hanrahan.
"Hopefully, we turned that around after the last road trip," Hanrahan, resplendent in a No. 18 Pirates T-shirt with "Pittsburgh Kid" across the shoulders, for Neil Walker.
As for his third save against his former employers, "I still know a lot of guys over there. I'm sure I'll get some messages from them."
He struck out two, including slugger Ryan Zimmerman to end it.
Yeah, Hanrahan added, "We needed that win."
Colin Dunlap's blog on the Pirates is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
