Pirates Rally Past Braves

April 27, 1999 / 11:31 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Jason Schmidt left at just the right time for Pittsburgh. Odalis Perez hung around a bit too long for Atlanta.

Schmidt pitched seven solid innings and beat his former team when the Pirates scored three runs in the eighth, rallying for a 5-3 victory over the Braves on Tuesday night.

Schmidt (3-1), who was 1-3 with a 6.30 ERA against the Braves since they dealt him to Pittsburgh three years ago, allowed six hits and three runs. He got credit for the win when pinch-hitter Keith Osik, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall came through with RBI singles to erase a 3-2 deficit and end the Pirates' four-game winning streak.

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"We needed that," said Schmidt, who benefited from several nice defensive plays, including a diving catch in right by Brian Giles. "It was nice to get a win when I didn't think I pitched that well. You've got to give it to the defense. They picked me up."

Perez (0-1) was in line to pick up his first major league win when he took a 3-1 lead to seventh. But the Pirates began to rally when Young doubled and came home on Ed Sprague's sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the inning, manager Bobby Cox allowed his young left-hander to bat for himself with a potential insurance run at second. Perez struck out, then was knocked out in the eighth.

"It's disappointing. I was thinking it might be my first major-league win," said Perez, who threw 121 pitches in 7 2-3 innings. "I was a little bit tired. It was the first time in six or seven months I've done that."

Perez, who was switched to the bullpen in the final months of 1998, had not pitched such a lengthy outing since he was at Double-A Greenville last summer. Still, Cox reacted angrily when reporters asked if his pitcher ran out of gas.

"He was strong," the manager said. "He could have gone nine. If you're trying to say he was tired, he wasn't."

Mike enjamin led off the eighth with a walk against Perez, stole second and scored the tying run when Osik, batting for Schmidt, singled up the middle.

"I was just trying to boot the runner over to third," Osik said. "It's a big lift for us to get out of that losing streak and beat a good team like the Braves."

Osik was thrown out trying to go to second and Perez struck out Adrian Brown. But the 20-year-old couldn't get the third out as Pat Meares punched a single to right and Giles walked.

Perez was replaced by Rudy Seanez, who had pitched 1 1-3 innings against Florida the day before. He promptly gave up consecutive run-scoring singles to Young and Kendall.

"I felt fine," Seanez said. "I just made a couple of bad pitches. That's why these guys are up here. They can hit those kind of pitches."

Mike Williams pitched the ninth for his third save.

The Braves broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the sixth. Three straight singles to begin the inning culminated with Chipper Jones' run-scoring hit up the middle.

The Pirates had a chance to get out of the inning after Brian Jordan flied out to left. But third baseman Sprague squandered an almost certain double play when he made an errant throw to second, the ball sailing into right field while Bret Boone scored.

Pittsburgh's Giles broke a scoreless tie in the fourth, hammering a high fastball over the right-field fence for his sixth homer. The Braves evened the score in the bottom of the inning when Jordan tripled to deep center and trotted home on Schmidt's wild pitch.

The Braves returned home in first place in the NL East following their longest road trip of the season: an 11-game, 15-day swing through four cities. They were greeted by 26,990, the smallest crowd in Turner Field's three-year history.

Notes: The Braves announced the first four members of their new Hall of Fame at Turner Field. Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Phil Niekro and Warren Spahn will be inducted at a ceremony Aug. 20. ... The Pirates began a stretch of 16 consecutive games without an off day. ... Pittsburgh starter Francisco Cordova, on the 15-day disabled list with an inflamed right shoulder, is scheduled to make a rehab start with Triple-A Nashville on Wednesday. ... Ryan Klesko made his first start since April 14, when he injured his right hamstring. He went 0-for-2 with a walk before Brian Hunter replaced him in the seventh inning. ... The Braves went 8-3 on their long road trip, the most victories on a stint away from home since going 9-8 while banished from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium during the 1996 Olympics.