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  Sunday, Jun. 11 2:05pm ET
Giles' HR sinks Kansas City
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- So much for the little mini-slump of Brian Giles.

With just three hits in 17 at-bats coming in, Giles doubled home the tying run in the ninth inning and then hit a two-run homer in a five-run 10th as the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for a 10-6 victory over Kansas City on Sunday.

Even though he'd been struggling, Giles started the game tied for the NL lead with 57 RBIs.

"I felt good all day, just couldn't find any holes," said Giles, who was 2-for-6 with three RBIs. "Then I finally got a pitch I could handle and put a good swing on it in the ninth."

The victory kept the Royals from their first-ever, three-game interleague sweep and marked the fourth straight time, going back to Pittsburgh the week before, that the two teams had gone into extra innings. The Royals took a 5-4 lead into the ninth before Giles hit an RBI double off rookie Jeff D'Amico.

"I think you could say these two teams are evenly matched," Giles said. "It's just unfortunate for us we won only one of the extra-inning games."

Warren Morris, who was 4-for-6 after going 5-for-6 on Saturday, committed a fielding error at second base that helped the Royals score three times in the seventh. Then he gave the Pirates the lead with a two-run double off Jerry Spradlin (2-2) in the 10th.

For the series, Morris was 11-for-17.

"He had some kind of three days, didn't he?" said Royals manager Tony Muser. "We were trying to pitch around him (in the 10th), make him bite. But we threw the ball right over the middle of the plate."

Morris hit a two-run double over the head of center fielder Carlos Beltran and then Adrian Brown, who had a career-high four hits, singled home Morris and Giles followed with a two-run homer.

Johnny Damon had an RBI double in the seventh and later made it 4-all on Mike Sweeney's infield out. Jermaine Dye's RBI single gave the Royals the lead.

Winner Scott Sauerbeck (3-0) pitched two innings of one-hit relief.

Starter Francisco Cordova, trying for a career-high fourth straight victory, gave up five runs on seven hits through six innings.

Two Kansas City errors led to three unearned runs in the first.

Todd Dunwoody, making his second start in left field, bobbled Brown's liner as Morris scored all the way from first.

Then, after Wil Cordero was safe on third baseman Joe Randa's fielding error, Kevin Young and Luis Sojo hit RBI singles with two out.

In the Royals first, Sanchez had an RBI double and scored on Beltran's single to make it 3-2. Brown and Cordero hit consecutive doubles in the second for a 4-2 lead.

Royals starter Jay Witasick went six innings and gave up four runs -- only one earned -- on 11 hits. Dunwoody hit his first home run in the 10th for the Royals.

Rain delayed the start of the game 34 minutes. ... Royals 1B Sweeney, No. 2 on the AL RBI list, made a standout catch to rob Giles of a run batted in. With two out in the second inning, Giles hit a line smash that Sweeney caught by diving to his right and doing a bellyflop. ... It was Damon's third game as DH. ... John Vander Wal, after doubling in the Pittsburgh fifth, was easily thrown out a moment later by starter Jay Witasick while trying to steal third, costing the Pirates a run when Young then singled. ... Young stole his first three bases of the year in this series.

 


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