Brian Burres pitched into the sixth in his first start of the season and Alex Presley had two triples, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Friday.

Presley reached four times and scored twice as Pittsburgh snapped a five-game losing streak. Josh Harrison doubled, singled and scored twice.

Burres (1-0) allowed one run and five hits over 5 1-3 innings. The left-hander was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday.

Four Pirates relievers combined for 3 2-3 perfect innings, with Joel Hanrahan picking up his 33rd save in 36 chances. Jason Grilli got the last two outs of the sixth, Chris Leroux pitched the seventh and Jose Veras worked the eighth before Hanrahan struck out two in the ninth.

Carlos Pena went deep for the Cubs, who have lost nine of 12. The first baseman now has at least 25 homers in five straight seasons and six times overall in his career.

Ryan Dempster (10-11) worked out of a couple of early jams and held Pittsburgh to three runs and seven hits over 6 1-3 innings. He struck out nine, two shy of his season best, and threw a season-high 121 pitches.

Pena connected in the second, hitting a drive to the deepest part of center field to give the Cubs the lead.

Pittsburgh responded with two in the third. Presley led off with a triple off the right-field wall and Harrison followed with a single to right. Garrett Jones added a two-out RBI double.

Neither team mounted much offense after that. The Cubs stranded two runners in the third and fourth. The Pirates didn’t threaten again until Presley’s one-out triple in the seventh chased Dempster. Presley scored on Jose Tabata’s two-out single off Kerry Wood.

Presley became the first Pirate to record two triples in a game since Andrew McCutchen on June 8, 2009. He has five triples on the season.

Fielding woes have plagued the Cubs, who entered with a major league-leading 114 errors and added two more on Friday. That doesn’t include a miscue in the first when Harrison’s grounder to shortstop Starlin Castro was misplayed into a rare infield double when the Cubs failed to cover second base.

McCutchen was hit in the left wrist area in the first inning. He remained in the game to run the bases, but was replaced by Tabata before the Cubs batted in the bottom half.

NOTES: The Cubs promoted 1B Bryan LaHair from Triple-A Iowa. LaHair’s 38 home runs for Iowa were leading the minor leagues. . Cubs RHP Andrew Cashner (right rotator cuff sprain) pitched a scoreless inning in a rehab outing for Iowa. Manager Mike Quade said Cashner reached 99 mph with his fastball and the club is hopeful he will return to the big leagues next week. . The Cubs announced that RHP Carlos Zambrano will not pitch for them again this season, even though his time on the disqualified list expires on Sept. 11. . RHP Jeff Karstens (shoulder), who was scratched from his scheduled start Friday, played catch but is likely to miss more than just this start, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. . Pirates 1B Derrek Lee (left wrist) took batting practice and the team hopes to activate him from the 15-day disabled list on Sunday if all goes well. . The Cubs will send RHP Casey Coleman to the hill on Saturday to face Pittsburgh RHP Ross Ohlendorf. Coleman has an 11.34 ERA in 19 2-3 innings at Wrigley Field this season.

By Eric Stephen

– Managing Editor

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Sep 1, 2011 – The Los Angeles Dodgers open a four-city, 11-game road trip on Thursday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a makeup game that is more an inconvenience than anything else, for both teams. The Dodgers originally had a 10-game road trip scheduled through three cities: Atlanta, Washington DC, and San Francisco — but added this game after having their May 12 game in Pittsburgh rained out.

The Dodgers have a stretch of games on 24 straight days, which had to be approved by the MLB Players Association. But the Pirates are inconvenienced too, as today was a scheduled off day for them as well. In fact, they are in the middle of their own 10-game road trip, as they finished a series in Houston Wednesday night and travel to Chicago to battle the Cubs starting Friday.

Dana Eveland, whose last major league game was on June 23, 2010 while with the Pirates, will be promoted by the Dodgers today to start the game. Eveland was an All-Star in the Pacific Coast League this season, going 12-8 with a 4.38 ERA with the Triple A Albuquerque Isotopes.

Brad Lincoln, who made 19 Triple A starts of his own this season, gets the start for the Pirates. Lincoln is 1-0 with a 3.42 ERA this season in Pittsburgh in seven games, including three starts. In each of his three starts for the Pirates this season, Lincoln has pitched six innings and allowed two runs or less.

Thursday’s 1:10 p.m. PDT game will be televised by KCAL. For more news and information on the Dodgers, be sure to read True Blue LA.

Read More: Dana Eveland (P – LOS), Brad Lincoln (P – PIT), Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Dodgers at Pittsburgh Pirates, Sep 1, 2011 1:05 PM PDT

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The Pittsburgh Pirates placed first baseman Derrek Lee on the
15-day disabled list before their game with the Milwaukee Brewers
on Saturday.

Lee broke a bone in his left wrist when he was hit by Chicago’s
Carlos Marmol on Aug. 3. The move is retroactive to Aug. 10.

Lee, who was acquired from Baltimore on July 30, missed four
games, but returned Monday and played two games in San Francisco.
He was batting .278 with two home runs and three RBIs in five games
since the trade.

Infielder Josh Harrison was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis.
It is his third stint with the Pirates in 2011. He has gone
25-for-95 (.263) with five RBIs and 12 runs scored in 30 games.

(Sports Network) – The Pittsburgh Pirates can begin one last improbable charge
toward the top of the National League’s Central Division tonight at Miller
Park, as they open a three-game series with the front-running Milwaukee
Brewers.

The Pirates were among the league’s biggest success stories for the season’s
first half, getting a share of the division for a brief spell and staying in
contention until a 10-game losing streak in late July and early August.

The dip pushed them below .500 for the season and to the fringes of contention
in the division, where they now trail the Brewers by 10 games after winning
two of three in San Francisco earlier in the week.

Milwaukee stretched its lead to four games over second-place St. Louis by
taking two of three in a series that ended Thursday, when Chris Carpenter
pitched eight strong innings and Albert Pujols went 4-for-4 with a homer and
two RBI as the Cardinals won, 5-2, to avoid a sweep.

Mark Kotsay and Prince Fielder both had RBI hits for the Brewers, who lost for
just the second time in their last 15 games. They grounded into four double
plays.

Yovani Gallardo (13-8) was saddled with the loss after allowing seven hits and
five runs — four earned — over five frames.

On Wednesday in San Francisco, Matt Diaz finished 2-for-4 with two RBI as
Pittsburgh plundered San Francisco, 9-2.

Ryan Ludwick added three hits, an RBI and two runs scored, while Andrew
McCutchen hit a two-run homer, walked three times and crossed the plate on
four occasions for the Pirates.

Jeff Karstens (9-6) worked six innings, allowing eight hits and two runs while
fanning nine for the win.

Milwaukee sends right-hander Zack Greinke to the mound, where he’ll face the
Pirates for the third time in his career.

The 27-year-old Floridian has won each of the first two meetings while
allowing a combined seven runs on 13 hits in 11 1/3 innings.

Lately, Greinke has won three straight outings, defeating the Chicago Cubs,
St. Louis and Houston while allowing 14 hits and three runs in 19 2/3 innings.

He’s been perfect at home in his first season with the Brewers, winning all
seven decisions in nine starts while posting a 3.49 earned run average.

Paul Maholm goes for the Pirates in search of his first win since July 10.

The Mississippi native was 6-9 on the season after a 9-1 defeat of the Cubs
that night, but has since dropped three decisions in five starts as his ERA
has ballooned from 2.96 to 3.54.

Maholm, a lefty, gave up 10 hits and seven runs in 6 2/3 innings of his last
outing, a 13-2 loss to San Diego on Aug. 6.

Maholm is 3-7 in 18 career starts against Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has won all five meetings with Pittsburgh this season and is 18-5 in
this series since the start of the 2010 campaign.

The Sports Network

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run homer, Jeff Karstens bounced back from his worst start of the season and the Pittsburgh Pirates won their first series in three weeks with a 9-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.

The Pirates took two of three from the reigning World Series champions on the heels of a 10-game losing streak. Pittsburgh is off Thursday before opening a weekend series at NL Central-leading Milwaukee. The Brewers have won all five previous meetings.

Garrett Jones added an RBI single to continue his torrid August and help back Karstens (9-6), whose career-high nine strikeouts matched a season-high for the team. Karstens, who ended a four-start winless stretch, gave up a season-high nine runs and nine hits in a 15-5 loss at San Diego last Friday.

McCutchen went 1 for 1 with three walks. He stole two bases and scored four runs.

Pablo Sandoval homered for the Giants, who began the day with a half-game lead over Arizona in the NL West. The Diamondbacks host Houston in a night game. San Francisco has led the division since June 25.

Jonathan Sanchez (4-7) walked McCutchen on four pitches and threw five straight balls to start the game. Sandoval came in from third and catcher Eli Whiteside hustled to the mound to chat with the left-hander, who was roughed up again in his second start since coming off the disabled list with biceps tendinitis. Sanchez was done after 4 1-3 innings and hasn’t won since June 2 at St. Louis.

McCutchen stole second and came around to score on Ryan Ludwick’s RBI single.

McCutchen’s 16th clout of the year put Pittsburgh ahead 3-1 in the third. The Pirates have homered in four of their last five games and eight of 12.

McCutchen scored four runs—most by a Pirate in a game this year—also drawing three walks and getting hit by a pitch leading off the seventh. Brandon Wood added a two-run single in the seventh and Matt Diaz hit two run-scoring singles. Pittsburgh’s Nos. 1-5 hitters went a combined 7 for 17 with six RBIs, eight runs scored, seven walks and a hit batter. Jones is batting .389 (14 for 36) with five doubles, three homers and seven RBIs this month.

With a power show on offense of late, Bucs pitchers also have allowed 18 homers over the last nine games. Sandoval connected in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 1.

The Giants have hit 19 straight solo home runs, matching the 1914 Phillies’ major league mark. Their last homer to score more than one run was a two-run drive by Nate Schierholtz on July 6 against San Diego.

Still, San Francisco finished up a disappointing 3-7 homestand with its 10th loss in 13 games. The Giants have dropped three straight series at AT&T Park for the first time since losing six consecutive home series from May 12-June 18, 2008.

Pirates first baseman Derrek Lee was a late scratch from the lineup with a recurring left hand injury. Manager Clint Hurdle said Lee’s hand was very sore after he played the two previous nights following a four-game absence with the bruised hand. Lee was hit with a pitch from Chicago’s Carlos Marmol last Wednesday.

Lee is batting .278 with two home runs and three RBIs in four games since joining the Pirates in a trade from Baltimore.

NOTES: Giants RF Carlos Beltran missed his third straight game nursing a strained right hand and wrist. Schierholtz was held out with a right hip flexor. … Giants LHP Barry Zito will make another rehab outing Saturday for Triple-A Fresno then fly out to join the Giants on the road. … San Francisco INF Miguel Tejada (lower abdominal strain) isn’t quite ready to begin a rehab outing in the minors, manager Bruce Bochy said. Tejada will travel on the road trip. … Pirates RHP Kevin Hart had arthroscopic cleanup surgery Tuesday performed by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. The team hopes to have Hart ready by spring training. … Pirates LHP Paul Maholm (6-12, 3.54 ERA) starts Friday trying to end a string of three straight losing decisions. He is 1-5 on the road and is coming off a 13-2 loss Saturday at San Diego. … All-Star RHP Matt Cain goes for the Giants on Friday at Florida, trying to improve to 4-1 for his career vs. the Marlins. He lost to Florida on May 24.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Latos’ mastery continued the misery for the Pirates, who completed an 0-7 stay at PNC Park against the last-place Padres and Chicago Cubs, two teams that were a combined 39 games under .500 when the week began.

Pittsburgh was winless on a homestand of at least seven games for the first time in franchise history, STATS LLC said. No team in the majors has had a homestand that long without a win since Kansas City in May 2006.

“It’s obviously not easy right now,” second baseman Neil Walker said. “As baseball players, we’ve all gone through some sort of stretch like this, whether it was from a personal or a team standpoint. Nobody likes the feeling that we have right now.

“It’s easy to let yourself go to a negative place when you’re like this, but … we’re still playing the same game we did when we were winning games. It’s just been a little tougher for us.”

Try a lot tougher. The Pirates, leading the division July 26, were outscored 59-25 by the Cubs and Padres. The bad week came after they got swept in Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh will try again to break its skid Monday night at San Francisco against the World Series champion Giants.

A day after the Pirates held a players-only meeting following a 13-2 loss, they trailed 7-0 going into the bottom of the eighth.

The Padres got a run on a wild pitch by Daniel McCutchen and another that was set up by catcher Ryan Doumit’s throwing error on a pitchout, two plays that exemplified Pittsburgh’s recent futility.

Latos (6-11) allowed only two singles until Doumit and Pedro Alvarez singled to open the eighth. Brandon Wood followed with a home run off Chad Qualls.

Will Venable had three hits and drove in two runs and Logan Forsythe had three RBIs as the Padres completed their third sweep of the season. San Diego has won four in a row.

Playing without top hitter Chase Headley, who sustained a broken left little finger Saturday, the Padres continued their offensive renaissance at the hands of the beleaguered Pirates.

“We got off to a good start there, and some of their guys didn’t have their best stuff,” Venable said. “We consistently, throughout the lineup, put good swings on those mistakes, and we were able to push some runs across.”

San Diego came into the series last in the National League in average, runs, home runs and extra-base hits. The Padres left it having scored 35 runs in three games, tied for the second-most in any three-game stretch in franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

San Diego has never scored more runs in a three-game series.

“Offensively, the three games speak for themselves,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “The collection of at bats from top to bottom were outstanding.”

This is the Pirates’ longest losing streak since a 12-game slide June 6-18, 2010, a season in which they lost 105 games.

The crowd of 35,601 meant a total of 112,618 saw the series, the fourth-largest in PNC Park history. While fans on Friday and Saturday often resorting to booing, Sunday’s scene never got ugly. Pirates fans were even given a reason to cheer when Wood’s homer, his seventh, cut San Diego’s lead to 7-3.

Pittsburgh’s Xavier Paul then singled with one out, but Qualls got the Pirates’ two best hitters, Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker, to ground out harmlessly to end the inning.

“We like playing here,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We just didn’t do well this week.

“I never thought we’d throw up a doughnut at home.”

Forsythe, in the lineup to replace Headley at third base, had an RBI groundout in the second against Kevin Correia (12-10) and a two-run single in the sixth. Venable added a two-run double in the eighth.

Signed in the offseason as a free agent from San Diego, Correia had allowed one run on three hits through 5 2/3 innings before running into two-out trouble in the sixth. He was charged with four runs on five hits and four walks, falling to 2-8 at home this season.

“I threw the ball pretty well up until there were two outs and nobody on in the sixth,” Correia said. “It’s just hard, in the situation we’re in and the results of the games, to feel good about anything.”

Note

Headley was to be evaluated over the next few days before a decision was to be made about a possible trip to the disabled list. … The Padres improved to 25-17 in day games (they’re 26-47 at night) and have won six consecutive series finales. … On Monday in San Francisco, the Pirates face RHP Ryan Vogelsong, who pitched for them from 2001-06 and was out of the majors until this season, when he is emerging as a possible Cy Young candidate. … Padres RHP Tim Stauffer is making his first career start in New York Monday.