PITTSBURGH — The blast was a long time coming — for Ryan Doumit and the Pirates.

Doumit's game-winning home run on the first pitch he saw in the 10th inning Sunday at PNC Park was his third hit of the day.

And first to ever end a game by leaving the ballpark.

"I always wondered what that would feel like," the Pirate catcher said. "I've never hit a walk-off home run anywhere at any level.

"You see different people react in different ways to doing it. It all happened so fast for me."

A fastball was delivered down the middle from Takashi Saito — a former closer for the Dodgers, now set-up man for Atlanta — and Doumit delivered a line drive into the right field seats.

"I put a good swing on it and it went," Doumit said.

It was Doumit's fourth homer of the season and his first at PNC Park in 2010. It also ended a dought of 63 innings without a Pirate round-tripper at PNC Park.

The Bucs had delivered only five home runs in their last 20 games played on the North Shore. Ronny Cedeno had hit the last one — May 10 against Cincinnati.

"It was good to finally get one here," Pirates manager John Russell said. "This one couldn't have come at a better time."

All in a day's work for Doumit.

He had doubled in the fifth inning, only to get thrown out at the plate trying to score on Aki Iwamura's two-out single to right. Doumit singled to right to plate Garrett Jones with the go-ahead run in the seventh.

"He had a big day and capped it the right way," Russell said.

Doumit insisted the relatively close right field wall at PNC Park doesn't cause him or any other Pirate hitters to over-swing during home games.

"This park isn't conducive to hitting home runs, especually from the right side of the plate," he said. "And we're not a power-laden club. We have one guy capable of hitting 30 home runs in a season and that's Garrett.

"We need to claw out runs, move guys over and hit them in."

The Pirates struggled to do that over the weekend, stranding 25 runners in their last two games.

Doumit put an end to that frustration Sunday.

"Every now and them, one of us runs into one," he said of the home run.