Desert demon
PHOENIX — Justin Upton was terrific. His Arizona Diamondbacks were terrible.
The 19-year-old sensation fell a single shy of the cycle in his home debut but it was nowhere near enough to beat Tom Gorzelanny and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
The Pirates' left-hander, pitching for the first time since July 25, struck out a career-high nine in seven innings to lead Pittsburgh to a 8-3 victory over the sloppy Diamondbacks.
"Everything just kind of clicked," Gorzelanny said. "My pitches were diving, I threw my change-up well and my two-seamer was moving. I was placing my fastball where I wanted it."
Gorzelanny (10-6) allowed four hits, three of them by the 19-year-old Upton, brought up from Double-A Mobile last Thursday.
Upton tripled in the second, homered in the fourth and doubled in the seventh. He grounded out to second to end the game.
"I'll tell you right now," Arizona's Orlando Hudson said. "You might want to start rewriting the records and putting his name right below A-Rod and Griffey when they were 19."
The 25-year-old Gorzelanny had not pitched since leaving after three innings because of shoulder stiffness against the Mets in New York on July 25.
"It was really good to see our guy bounce back and pitch in the manner in which he did," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "He was really good tonight."
The Diamondbacks committed four errors, and that doesn't count center fielder Chris Young's misjudgment of Jose Bautista's line drive to center that resulted in a double.
"We have games where we don't play very well," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "We got beat 14-0 and 11-0. We've got a younger group and sometimes they make mistakes that stick out."
Jack Wilson doubled twice, drove in a run and scored a run in the Pirates' second road victory in 11 games. Ronny Paulino singled in a pair for Pittsburgh, 5-16 since the All-Star break.
Hudson homered for Arizona, which lost for only the third time in 16 games. The Diamondbacks' lead in the NL West slipped to one game.
