Torres slams door on another one-run victory

March 16, 2012 10:23 pm

Share with others:

By Dejan Kovacevic / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ST. LOUIS -- Jim Tracy is making no secret of his wish to see the Pirates do some spoiling in September.

Not so much because of its potential effect on the standings but, as the manager specifies, "because of how it will help our team to grow to face these contending teams in big situations, tough situations."

Within that context, it gets no bigger or tougher than this ...

Packed house.

An opponent clinging to first place.

One-run lead, man on base and Albert Pujols at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.

Yeah, that somehow ended up a 1-0 victory for the Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals last night at Busch Stadium.

"That was a loss three or four months ago. And now, it's a win," reliever Salomon Torres said after his two scoreless innings ended it. "You can see the direction we're going. You can see we're mature enough to convert those one-run losses into one-run wins now."

That trend turned 180 degrees, as with so much for these Pirates, at the All-Star break. They were 30-60 overall beforehand and are 24-22 since. They were 9-27 in one-run games beforehand, 10-2 since.

This one came as the result of Torres doing his best ElRoy Face impersonation.

After Shawn Chacon tiptoed through five scoreless innings -- four hits and as many walks along the way -- Matt Capps added zeroes in the two that followed.

In the top of the seventh, the Pirates pushed across the game's lone run on Ronny Paulino's bases-loaded sacrifice fly against St. Louis starter Jeff Weaver. Singles by Freddy Sanchez and Xavier Nady plus a walk by Ryan Doumit had set the stage.

Tracy was reluctant to use any of his four right-handed relievers recently promoted from Class AAA Indianapolis after Capps, so he summoned Torres -- who appears to be replacing injured Mike Gonzalez as closer -- an inning early for the eighth.

His reasoning: Pujols and Scott Rolen, each right-handed, make for a one-two punch he wanted no one else to face.

"Those two change everything," Tracy said.

Pujols and Rolen singled to start off the eighth, anyway. After they moved up on a bunt, Juan Encarnacion was intentionally walked to load the bases.

But Torres bore down and fanned Ronnie Belliard, flailing at a ... well, he calls it a sinker, but it has much more movement than the conventional variety.

"It's a sinker, really," Torres said.

"Yeah, but it's 95 miles an hour," teammate Paul Maholm chimed in from a nearby stall.

Pinch-hitter Preston Wilson, St. Louis' hottest bat, swung over a splitter to quash the threat.

Torres pumped his fist as the capacity crowd of 41,466 fell silent.

"That's the best feeling," he said. "My emotions got the best of me."

He would go higher still.

A one-out single in the ninth by Aaron Miles meant that Pujols would come up again, which he did with two outs and the crowd on its feet. Torres went right at him to draw a 2-2 count, then got a meek grounder to Sanchez for a forceout at second.

It was Torres' first save of the season, coming in his 81st appearance, most in Major League Baseball.

"That was the best performance of this year for myself," he said. "I felt like I was in total control."

Chacon's good-bad cycle since joining the Pirates continued, even though he needed to strand eight runners. In his five starts, he has allowed one run, seven runs, one run, seven runs and now a zero.

"Shawn Chacon sent us a message," Tracy said. "He obviously dealt with baserunners, but he put down his innings."

Capps gave up only a single in his two innings, but that was erased by a double play that featured an acrobatic pivot by Sanchez.

The outcome overshadowed a second consecutive miserly output on offense. Less than 24 hours after getting three-hit by Chris Carpenter, the Pirates managed only six against Weaver -- he of the 6.16 ERA -- and the St. Louis bullpen.

And no bat has been quieter than that of cleanup man Jason Bay, 0 for 8 the past two games and mired in a peculiar slump in which he has struck out in nine of his past 12 at-bats. That includes all four last night.

"We all go through that," Tracy said, shrugging it off.

As has become the norm, he and the rest of the Pirates focused on their improved play of late.

"It's a great game for us to win," Tracy said. "Obviously, we haven't played the kind of baseball that eventually we're going to want to on a regular basis, so ... to come into this ballpark against that club and win a game, 1-0, it just adds to a lot of the special things we've been doing in the second half."

"This means a lot to us," Capps, a 22-year-old rookie, said. "It's a sign of maturity, of learning how to win."

Kyle Ericson, Associated Press
Pirates shortstop Freddy Sanchez turns a double play in the sixth inning last night as he forces the Cardinals' Ronnie Belliard at Busch Stadium.
Click photo for larger image.