Cota's tater can't save Pirates

PITTSBURGH -- For two weeks, the Pittsburgh Pirates showed that they could beat some of the top teams in baseball.
On Sunday afternoon, the same Pirates team that had won nine of its previous 12 games showed that it could just as easily lose to a bottom-tier club.

The Bucs' 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 13 innings snapped Pittsburgh's four-game winning streak and gave the Devil Rays just their fifth win in 33 road games. Alex Gonzalez's two-run home run in the top of the 13th off Pirates reliever Brian Meadows proved to be the decisive blow.

"It was a very frustrating loss in a lot of different ways," said Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon. "For as far as we've come, this type of game shows how far we have to go. When you become a championship type of club, you win these types of games. We just didn't execute."

One night after pounding the Devil Rays, 18-2, the Pirates never led during Sunday's four-hour marathon. Each of the first five Tampa Bay hitters of the game reached base safely, including Travis Lee, whose two-run double gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. After the Bucs cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the first, Tampa Bay once again jumped out to a two-run lead on Toby Hall's two-run single after two outs in the seventh.

The Pirates pulled to within a run again in the bottom of the seventh. Down to their last out, the Bucs finally pulled even on Humberto Cota's pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth.

"It was one of those tough losses," said Cota. "We could have won the game and swept those guys.

"When we made it 5-4, we still had the feeling we could come back. We were kind of flat, and then we got that rally that inning."

After Pirates closer Jose Mesa tossed his second consecutive perfect inning in the 10th, the Pirates appeared primed to pull out a win in the bottom half of the frame. But with one out and the bases loaded, Jose Castillo grounded into an inning-ending double play.

"In that situation, I need a fly ball to win [the game]," said Castillo, who had a career-high five RBIs on Saturday night. "It wasn't my day. I don't feel good right now."

The missed opportunity proved costly when Gonzalez took Meadows (2-1) deep with one out in the 13th. "It was a fastball that kind of got away from me," said Meadows. "I left it out over the plate and [Gonzalez] hit it.

"We played hard. It just came down to one bad pitch."

It would be unfair to lay the loss at the feet of Castillo and Meadows. McClendon, who said that Sunday's game was "absolutely" the Pirates' most disappointing loss of the season, was quick to point out that there were plenty of bad plays that caused his team to lose.

"We did a lot of things wrong today, from defense to running the bases to pitching to situational hitting," said McClendon. "You name it, we did it."

McClendon declined to comment on the specific bad plays, citing a lack of sufficient time to go through them all.

"There were quite a few things in this ballgame today that led us not to win," said McClendon. "I certainly don't have enough time to go into them now. It would take until tomorrow's day off."

A pair of baserunning mistakes by veteran Matt Lawton helped to prematurely kill two Pirates rallies.

Lawton chased home Jack Wilson with Pittsburgh's fourth run on a bunt single in the eighth. The inning came to an end when Lawton was thrown out at second base after taking a wide turn on a Jason Bay infield single that had deflected off the glove Tampa Bay shortstop Julio Lugo.

"I saw it come off of his glove and I couldn't stop," said Lawton. "It just felt like I was on black ice. My cleats didn't catch on the ground. I kept sliding."

Lawton, who tied a career high with four hits, had also made a costly error on the basepaths in the third inning. After doubling with one out, Lawton was thrown out at third base on Bay's routine grounder to Gonzalez at shortstop. Ryan Doumit followed with a double, and the Bucs would strand both runners in scoring position.

"You go out there, you're aggressive and you try to make plays," said Lawton. "Sometimes you're just going to come up a little short.

If there was any good news that came out of the game for the Pirates, it was that Wilson was not badly injured after being hit by a pitch in the seventh inning. Wilson stayed in the game and scored a run but did not take the field in the eighth. X-rays taken of the All-Star shortstop's left forearm were negative, and he is expected to be ready to play on Tuesday when the Pirates begin their three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

Fogg surrendered four runs on 11 hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings. He had allowed three runs or fewer in nine of his previous 11 starts.

Franklin Nunez (1-0) tossed 2 2/3 perfect innings for the win. Chad Orvella pitched a scoreless 13th inning to notch his first save.

Source: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/