Pirates reach .500 with rout of Rays

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Pirates honored their 1960 team on Saturday night with an on-field ceremony celebrating the 45th anniversary of their improbable World Series win over the mighty New York Yankees.
The current Pirates' utter domination of the visiting Tampa Bay Devil Rays over the course of the subsequent three hours had to bring a smile to the face of Bill Mazeroski and the other Bucs old timers.

Pittsburgh's 18-2 trouncing of the Devil Rays before a crowd of 31,113 at PNC Park gave the Pirates a season-high four-game winning streak and enabled them to even their record (30-30) for the first time since Opening Day.

The Bucs' 20-hit outburst included contributions from just about everyone wearing a sleeveless jersey. All nine members of the Pirates starting lineup had at least one hit, including starting pitcher Oliver Perez. Pittsburgh batted around twice.

"Hitting is contagious and we sure showed up with the bats tonight," said Pirates rookie Ryan Doumit, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs as the Bucs' cleanup hitter.

"Guys couldn't wait to get up there. We found holes and guys were hitting the ball hard. It's not many times you see 20 hits in a game. It was certainly fun to be a part of that tonight.

The Pirates staked Perez to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but the real fireworks didn't come until the sixth. Jose Castillo's third home run of the season, a three-run shot to right field off of Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir, highlighted a six-run rally in which the Pirates sent 11 batters to the plate.

Castillo, who came into the night mired in an 0-for-18 slump, went 3-for-5 with five RBIs after making adjustments to his swing during batting practice.

"I stayed back on everything and stood up a little bit [straighter] and my legs were a little closer," Castillo explained. "I felt good today."

Castillo wasn't the only one. In addition to Doumit and Castillo, four other Pirates had at least two hits apiece. The 18 runs were the most scored by the Pirates since their 19-2 win over the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 26, 1992.

"I was really happy that everybody came out swinging the bats well," said Humberto Cota, who was 2-for-6.

"They made a lot of mistakes. A lot of pitches were down the middle. We took advantage of that. That's good. It gave us a big vote of confidence that we can have a good breakout like tonight.

Driving 'em home
Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh, June 11, 2005
Ryan Doumit, Daryle Ward and Jose Castillo combined for eight of the game's hits, six of its runs and 12 of its RBIs. Their lines:
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
Doumit 5 3 3 1 1 0 3
Ward 5 1 2 0 0 0 4
Castillo 5 2 3 0 0 1 5
Totals 15 6 8 1 1 1 12

Perez, meanwhile, turned in one of his best outings of the year against a Devil Rays club that entered the game ranked second in the Major Leagues in team batting average.

The hard-throwing southpaw limited the Devil Rays to one run on five hits and a walk while fanning 10 in seven innings.

"[Perez] really had everything going for him," said Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon. "The changeup was excellent, the slider was biting quite a bit. The fastball had good velocity, too."

Perez struck out the side in order in the sixth inning to reach double digits in strikeouts for the first time this season and the 15th time in his career. Many of Perez's strikeouts came as a result of his choice to go with his changeup when he expected the Devil Rays to sit on his fastball or slider.

"I was using more of my changeups. That worked tonight," said Perez. "You have to get a feel for the situation."

"I don't want to strike out a lot of guys. I just want to be out there in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and try to win the game."

Perez has gone 4-0 with a 3.26 ERA in five starts since returning from a two-week layoff to work on his pitching mechanics.

The Pirates are 9-3 on a homestand that has included consecutive series wins against the Devil Rays, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins. They are at the .500 mark at the latest point in a season since they were 67-67 on September 1, 1999.

"We're happy to reach the .500 mark, but we're not satisfied," said Cota. "We want to get above .500 and compete with the big teams in our division. I think we've got a good shot."

McClendon agreed with his catcher.

"It means we've won half our games," said McClendon. "That's not my goal. My goal is to get better. I don't know the significance of [being .500] in June. It's nice, but we want to continue to get better."

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