Kearns' RBI single in 8th gives Nats 3-2 win over Pirates

Washington Nationals Lastings Milledge (44), and Austin Kearns (25) celebrate after both scoring on a single by teammate Wil Nieves during the second inning of an MLB baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Thursday, May 1, 2008 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON—Austin Kearns broke a tie with a two-out RBI single in the eighth inning, and the Washington Nationals ran their winning streak to a season-high four games Thursday night with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After Cristian Guzman singled and Nick Johnson was hit by a pitch, Kearns drove an outside pitch to right off John Grabow (1-1) to score Guzman, who barely beat the throw from Xavier Nady.

Luis Ayala (1-1) pitched the eighth to get the victory in a game played at a torrid pace -- 2 hours, 4 minutes. Jon Rauch worked the ninth for his sixth save, doubling his career total from the start of the season. He's serving as Washington's closer while Chad Cordero nurses an arm injury.

Freddy Sanchez and Ryan Doumit homered for the Pirates, and Wil Nieves had a two-run single for the Nationals, who have won seven of nine to improve the clubhouse mood after a terrible first three weeks of April.

The late-inning suspense meant that the game's two starting pitchers, lefties Zach Duke and Odalis Perez, remain winless on the season despite fine efforts. Over 14 combined innings, they essentially made three bad pitches -- enough to account for the four runs that left the game tied at 2-2 when both departed after the seventh inning.

Perez, still 0-3, has allowed two or fewer runs in six of his seven starters, but his teammates have given him just 10 total runs of support in those six outings.

On Thursday, he retired the first 10 batters he faced. Sanchez was No. 11, belting the ball into the Pirates bullpen in left center in the fourth inning for his first home run of the season. Perez then allowed a single to Jose Bautista in the fifth and Doumit's fifth home of the season -- also to left center -- in the seventh.

Perez, who had not pitched longer than six innings all season, got through seven before being lifted for a pinch hitter. He allowed three hits, struck out four, walked none and threw 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

Duke's season now consists of four no-decisions and three losses. His major miscue came in the second, when he threw a pitch over the fat part of the plate to the No. 8 hitter on a 2-0 count with two men on base and first base empty. Nieves deposited the pitch into right-center for a two-run single that scored Lastings Milledge and Kearns.

Duke's seven innings matched his longest start of the season. He allowed five hits with two walks and one strikeout. He has now gone nearly a year without a win on the road, his last victory away from home coming against Cincinnati on May 27, 2007.

Notes:@ The Nationals and Pirates will start a left-hander in each of the first three games of the four-game series. The last time there were three consecutive lefty matchups was 1995 in an Aug. 5-7 series between Atlanta and Montreal. ... Pittsburgh manager John Russell remains confider that LHP Tom Gorzelanny will not miss a start. Gorzelanny left Wednesday's 13-1 win over the New York Mets after his back tightened up. "There's nothing with the spine, nothing with nerves, there's nothing going down his leg," Russell said. "It's just a tight back, that's all. We just have to watch it, continue to treat it." ... Pirates INF Jack Wilson, on the 15-day DL with a strained left calf, was expected to see action at extended spring training Thursday and Friday before reporting to Double-A Altoona on Saturday. ... The Pirates released RHP Olivo Astacio (Class-A Lynchburg) from the 40-man roster for what the team called "a significant violation of organization policy."