John Candelaria went the distance and Bill Robinson went deep twice to lead the Pirates to a 10-2 thrashing of Atlanta. Robinson and Tim Foli had three hits apiece to lead a 15-hit attack.
The pummeling started early against Mickey Mahler. The Pirates got two in the bottom of the first when Robinson, playing first with Willie Stargell out, followed a Dave Parker double with his third longball of the season. The Bucs then put the game away with five in the third. Singles by Foli, Parker and Robinson loaded the bases for a sacrifice fly by Lee Lacy. Rennie Stennett then doubled in two and, after an intentional walk to Steve Nicosia, the Candy Man doubled in another pair.
Meanwhile, Candelaria pretty much sailed along after getting out of a first-inning jam. The game’s first two batters singled, but a strike-em-out throw-em-out double play on Jeff Burroughs threw water on the fire, with Nicosia getting the lead runner at third. Candelaria gave up a run on a single and double in the second, and a second run on a Pepe Frias homer in the fifth. Atlanta got two on in the sixth, to no avail, and had only one baserunner in the last three innings. Candelaria allowed eight hits overall, with no walks and six strikeouts. He evened his record at 1-1.
The Pirates added to their lead in the fourth, making it 9-1 when Robinson launched another two-run bomb. That gave him four RBIs on the day and four homers on the season. The final run came in the eighth when Matt Alexander, who’d replaced Parker, tripled in Foli. Alexander went 2-for-2 and Parker 2-for-3, so the Pirates got four hits out of the third spot. Every Pirate who played had at least one hit except for Omar Moreno.
