Sanchez walk-off home run ends Bucs' record losing skid
PITTSBURGH — No team named the Pittsburgh Pirates had lost this many games in a row. Nobody wearing a Pirates uniform wants to be part of the next one that does.
Freddy Sanchez led off the ninth inning with a home run, his fourth hit of the game, and the Pirates rallied to end a club-record 13-game losing streak by beating the Chicago White Sox 7-6 Thursday.
"You hope you never see anything like that happen to us again," said Sanchez, who raised his NL-leading batting average to .363. "Now we're looking forward to starting to win some games. Let's do something and turn it around and hope it's over."
The Pirates stopped their longest skid in the modern era of baseball that began in 1900, and the second-longest in franchise history to a 23-game slide in 1890 — when the city's NL team was known as the Pittsburg Alleghenies.
But they barely came out on top.
They led 6-4, only to see Jim Thome tie it with his 25th homer in his only at-bat of the game, a pinch-hit, two-run drive off Roberto Hernandez that bounced into the Allegheny River in the eighth. The night before, the White Sox rallied from a three-run deficit to win 4-3, the World Series champions' 11th win in 12 games.
"Pinch-hitting, it's a different role for sure. You've got to be aggressive and try to get a pitch to hit, that's it," Thome said.
It's the kind of game the White Sox have won and the Pirates have lost so many times this season. Only this day was different.
Mike Gonzalez (2-3) pitched out of a two-on, two-out jam in the top of the ninth by striking out former teammate Rob Mackowiak. Sanchez then hit an 0-1 pitch from Cliff Politte (1-2) into the first row of the left-field seats for his fifth homer, giving the Pirates their first victory in 15 days.
"I knew it felt good, but I couldn't assume anything," Sanchez said. "I think it's the first time since junior college I hit a walk-off homer."
Politte hadn't pitched since June 4 because of right shoulder inflammation and was activated from the disabled list earlier in the day.
"It was a fastball down and in and he hit it out," Politte said, letting out a long and audible sigh. "It's over. It's not the way you want to come back, have that kind of stuff happen to you, but it's part of the game and you've got to move on."
