Nats 8 Pirates 4

After a full weekend of the Pirates pitching staff playing bend but don't break with the Nats, they finally broke in the 11th inning today, surrendering four runs to the Nats and costing themselves only their second sweep of the season. Paul Maholm got off to a good start today and mowed down the Nats through six, but he hit trouble in the 7th and let the Nats get back into the game by giving up a 2 run homer to Alex Escobar. Still, it's not entirely the fault of the pitching as the offense, which had been so hot coming out of the break, managed only one run after the first inning against such stalwarts as Livian Hernandez, Saul Rivera, Kevin Gryboski, and Mike Stanton. I suppose every once in a while we need that reminder that we are in fact the Pittsburgh Pirates.