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National League Game Summary - Pittsburgh At Florida

POSTED: 12:15 am EDT July 4, 2009

(Sports Network) - Brandon Moss and Ramon Vazquez hit early home runs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates shut down Hanley Ramirez, on the way to a 7-4 win over the Florida Marlins in the opener of a three-game series.

Charlie Morton (1-1) pitched six shutout innings to get the victory, as the Pirates snapped a two-game skid but moved to 4-0 against the Marlins this season.

"[Morton] made some pitches a couple of different times and we couldn't get any runs," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

Moss, Vazquez and Jack Wilson each had two RBI in the win.

Chris Volstad (5-8) was saddled with the loss after surrendering three hits and four runs over three innings. He's dropped five of his last six decisions.

John Baker smacked a two-run homer and had three RBI for the Marlins, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Nationals, but fell a game behind the Phillies for first place in the tight NL East.

Ramirez came into the game having driven in at least one run in 10 straight contests, extending his club record, but he finished 0-for-4 Friday. The streak by Ramirez was the longest for a shortstop since Carlos Guillen had an 11-game surge for the 2007 Tigers. It was also the longest streak ever for a National League shortstop, since RBI became an official statistic in 1920.

Moss homered to right field in the first inning and Vazquez added a two-run shot in the second

"It was a fastball in," Vazquez recalled. "I was actually not trying to hit a homer. I was trying to get the head [of the bat] out and pull something into the hole and just happened to get a good swing."

Andrew McCutchen scored on a Moss fielder's choice in the third and the game went into a 44-minute delay in the bottom half.

The Pirates then exploded for three runs in the seventh for a 7-0 cushion. McCutchen doubled in a run and scored on Wilson's two-run double to left.

Baker doubled in a run in the bottom half and scored on pinch-hitter Ross Gload's single. Baker's two-run homer off Jeff Karstens in the ninth accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes:

The game was delayed twice for a total of 75 minutes due to inclement weather...The Pirates snapped a four-game road losing streak. Pittsburgh came into Friday night's play 0-5-1 in its last six series on the road since taking three of four games from the Washington Nationals from May 18-21.


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