GAME THREAD: NL: PHILADELPHIA (65-57) at PITTSBURGH (51-70)

Pirates rally late to upend Phillies

<h3>PITTSBURGH 8, PHILADELPHIA 4</h3>PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Through the seventh-inning stretchSunday, Kyle Lohse and the Philadelphia Phillies appeared to becruising to their fifth victory in their past seven games. Thenthe bottom fell out.


The Pittsburgh Pirates used a seven-run seventh inning en routeto a 8-4 come-from-behind victory during a chilly afternooncontest in Pittsburgh that featured two rain delays.

Matt Kata had a pinch-hit three-run double and Xavier Nady hadtwo hits and two RBI for the last-place Pirates, who have wonthree of four.


"We did an awful lot of good things in this game," Pittsburghmanager Jim Tracy said. "It's a great win, and there were a lotof different contributors to it."


Russel Branyan hit his ninth home run and Jimmy Rollins his 22ndfor the Phillies, who fell five games behind the NLEast-leading New York Mets and allowed the Atlanta Braves tomove within a half-game of second place.


"I'm angry," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose teamalso blew a 4-0 lead Saturday. "I feel like we definitely had achance to sweep the series, but we didn't do it when we had to.We let the game slip away from us - both of them."

After the game started 44 minute late, Rollins led off thecontest with his homer to right-center. It was his 23rd careerleadoff homer and sixth this season - both Phillies records.

When Branyan hit his homer in the sixth - his second in his pastfive at bats - the Phillies had a 4-0 lead and it looked as ifthey would leave town with their fourth consecutive seriesvictory.


"We were going pretty smooth there for six innings," Lohse said."Then we kind of hit a snag, and it kind of snowballed."

Lohse, making his fourth start with the Phillies since beingacquired from the Cincinnati Reds July 30, entered the game 2-0with an 0.48 ERA lifetime against the Pirates.


He pitched a six-hit complete game shutout against them May 28and was on his way to another such sterling performance Sunday.He faced the minimum through 4 2/3 innings and had a three-hitshutout going into the seventh.


But then things turned sour for the Phillies. With it still 4-0and only Xaiver Nady on first and two outs, Jose Bautistasingled and pinch-hitter Josh Phelps walked. That's when Katadelivered his double to left-center on a 2-0 pitch that clearedthe bases.


"It was a situation with the bases loaded where right there thelast thing (Loshe) wants to do is go 3-0," said Kata, who had apinch-hit homer Friday night. "I got my fastball and put a goodswing on it."


J.C. Romero (0-1) relieved Lohse and gave up a game-tying doubleto Nate McLouth. Two batters later, Sanchez doubled off ofAntonio Alfonseca to score McLouth and give Pittsburgh the lead,5-4. After an intentional walk to Adam LaRoche, Nady's singlescored Jack Wilson and Sanchez to make it 7-4.


"You've got to keep battling," Sanchez said. "We had two greatat bats from Phelps and Kata, and were able to win a ballgame."

One of those was Pirates starter Ian Snell (8-10), who earned awin despite having left the game down 4-0. He had not won sinceJuly 4 and had not started a game Pittsburgh had won since theAll-Star break. Snell struck out 10 in allowing four runs oneight hits and three walks in seven innings.


"It's like a weight lifted off my shoulders," Snell said of hisfirst victory in more than six weeks. "I'm tired of (everyone)talking about it."


The teams endured a 63-minute delay and then another 24-minuterain delay in the middle of the eighth.


"It was frustrating, obviously, having to wait and then startand then wait and then start again," Rowand said. "It was adifficult way to finish the game. These are two tough losses."