Pirates 5, Nationals 3 (1st)
Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates ended a six-game road losing streak to the Washington Nationals with a 5-3 victory in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday.
The Nationals rallied for a 4-3 win in the nightcap to earn a split.
In game one, Jones had two RBIs, Neil Walker drove in run and Joel Hanrahan tied a franchise record with his 24th straight save for Pittsburgh. Rick Ankiel homered for the Nationals, who fell to 1-4 under manager Davey Johnson. Washington trailed 1-0 until the seventh, when Ankiel drilled a 3-2 pitch into the right-center field seats for his first homer since April 2.
Jones snapped the 2-2 tie by tagging a 2-2 sinker from loser Sean Burnett (3-5) over the left-center field wall for his ninth homer. McCutchen followed with a drive into the Pirates’ bullpen. Matt Diaz added an RBI single in the ninth.
Hanrahan then allowed a two-out, RBI single to Jayson Werth in the ninth before tying Mike Gonzalez’s straight saves mark set in 2006 for Pittsburgh. Jose Veras (2-2) allowed one hit in 1 2/3 innings in relief of James McDonald, who yielded two runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings.