provide the go-ahead run for the Pirates.“I was trying to locate it a little differ

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with the based loaded Duane Kuiper Jersey , two outs and one of baseball’s hottest hitters at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, there was nowhere Felipe Vázquez wanted to be more than on the mound at Nationals Park.The Pittsburgh Pirates relief ace then coaxed a flyball from Anthony Rendon to cap a two-inning outing Sunday and preserve a 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals.“I like that excitement,” Vázquez said. “He’s a good hitter right now and he’s been hitting the ball everywhere. For me, that’s a challenge. I take every hitter like him as a challenge.”Rookie Jason Martin’s ground-rule double in the ninth inning off Wander Suero (1-1) scored Josh Bell to ently,” Suero said of the curveball Martin hit. “I was trying to get it on the dirt for him to chase it. Unfortunately, I hung it just a little bit and he made contact.”That set up Vázquez (1-0), who pitched a scoreless eighth, to finish out the victory. He loaded the bases on a single, a walk and Adam Eaton’s bunt single with one out, but struck out Howie Kendrick.That brought up Rendon, who is hitting .400 with six homers in 55 at-bats. On the sixth pitch, Rendon lofted a fly to center to end the game and secure Pittsburgh’s first series victory at Nationals Park since 2013.“I made my own jam, so I had to get out and I worked my way through,” Vázquez said.Vázquez, who pitched parts of two seasons for Washington before he was dealt to Pittsburgh in 2016, blossomed into an All-Star last year. He has yet to allow a run in 8 2/3 innings this season.“The guy is incredibly talented,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “When you see him at 100 on his 42nd pitch, and basically you saw the velocity trend up throughout the outing.”“Just the focus, that competitive spirit http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , and you’re going against a guy with a 10-game streak of extra base hits and he got a hit earlier and the bases are loaded. It’s all good stuff, and he loves those situations,” he said.Washington starter Max Scherzer allowed three runs and seven hits while working a season-high eight innings. He struck out seven. He gave way to Suero, who walked Bell to lead off the ninth and moved to second on Colin Moran’s grounder.With two outs, Martin hit a ground-rule double to left for his second major league RBI.“He got some big outs and then he just couldn’t finish that last pitch,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said.The inning compounded Washington’s early-season relief woes. The Nationals entered the day with the worst bullpen ERA in the majors and it rose to 7.75.Pittsburgh starter Jameson Taillon gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings.Rendon extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games with a single in the sixth.TRAINER’S ROOMPirates: OF Gregory Polanco (left shoulder) had two hits and drove in two runs Saturday in his first rehabilitation appearance at Triple-A Indianapolis. … RHP Dovydas Neverauskas (oblique strain) had two strikeouts in a scoreless inning Saturday for Indianapolis. He’s thrown three scoreless innings during three rehab appearances at Indianapolis and Class A Bradenton.Nationals: Martinez said 1B Matt Adams, who twisted his ankle Saturday while stepping on Pittsburgh RHP Chris Archer’s foot, was available to play Sunday.ARCHER DROPS APPEALArcher dropped his appeal and began serving a five-game suspension for setting off a benches-clearing altercation on April 7. Archer threw a fastball behind Cincinnati’s Derek Dietrich, who had stood and watched a long home run in his previous at-bat. Archer, who pitched seven innings Saturday against Washington, will make his next start April 21 at home against San Francisco.UP NEXTPirates: Pittsburgh has Monday off. It begins a two-game series at Detroit on Tuesday as RHP Joe Musgrove (1-0, 0.00 ERA) starts against the Tigers for the first time.Nationals: After an off day Monday, RHP Stephen Strasburg (1-0, 5.40) starts Tuesday as Washington begins a three-game series at home against San Francisco. PHOENIX (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke are two of the players Arizona counts on most, and they came through when sorely needed on Sunday.Goldschmidt hit his 30th homer, Greinke won for the first time in almost a month and the Diamondbacks avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of Seattle by beating the Mariners 5-2.With the victory and Colorado’s 12-3 loss to St. Louis, the Diamondbacks were back alone in first place in the NL West, a game up on the Rockies and 2½ ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Houston beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-1, so Seattle fell 6½ behind the Astros in the AL West.“This is an amazing game Derek Holland Jersey , and you can’t take anything for granted,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We fumbled a couple of balls out there and that leads to a couple of runs, but when we had to, we made pitches and made plays and won a very tough game.“When I tell you today was hard, that was probably an understatement after what we walked through last night.”Goldschmidt’s three-run shot off Mike Leake (8-8) punctuated a five-run third inning for the Diamondbacks, who bounced back from blowing a two-run lead in the ninth Saturday night and losing in 10 innings.Arizona flirted with losing this one in the ninth, too. Ben Gamel and Chris Herrmann opened the inning with singles off Yoshihisa Hirano and left fielder David Peralta dropped Dee Gordon’s line drive to allow a run to score.Brad Boxberger, who blew the save Saturday night, came in and walked pinch-hitter Nelson Cruz to load the bases. But Mitch Haniger lined out sharply to third and Robinson Cano bounced into a double play to give Boxberger his 29th save in 35 tries.“We did put some pressure on them, had our chances there late,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said, “just not enough.”Greinke (13-8) gave up an unearned run and five hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking two. He had gone 0-3 in his previous four starts.Leake fell to 0-4 in his last 10 starts and hasn’t won since June 23 despite several strong outings in that span. He was tagged for five runs and seven hits, striking out six in six innings Sunday.“It’s part of the game,” he said of the long stretch without a win. “There’s ups and downs. It’s what you learn throughout your career. It’s just part of it and you’ve just got to keep doing a good job.”Jeff Mathis, Greinke and Jon Jay loaded the bases with one-out singles in the third. A.J. Pollock brought the tying run home with a sacrifice fly and David Peralta made it 2-1 with a slow-rolling RBI infield single.Peralta’s was the key hit of the inning, Servais said, “an extra out.”That brought up Goldschmidt, who was 1-for-10 in the series before sending Leake’s pitch deep into the left field seats.It is Goldschmidt’s fourth career 30-homer season.“Honestly http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , it’s not something I’m thinking about,” he said. “We’re obviously here in a playoff race and just trying to find a way and go out and perform and help us win. Even if I don’t do that (hit 30 homers) and the team wins, that’s most important.”Seattle got an unearned run in the first when Haniger reached on shortstop Ketel Marte’s throwing error. With two outs, Haniger advanced to second on Denard Span’s single and scored when Kyle Seager singled.TRAINER’S ROOMMariners: Leake was scratched from his last scheduled start Aug. 21 because of illness.McCAIN TRIBUTEThe Diamondbacks showed a video tribute to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who died Saturday of brain cancer. McCain was a fan of the team and a regular at games until his illness forced him to stay away. The tribute even included a repeat of McCain’s tweet after the Dodgers celebrated clinching the pennant with a dip in the Chase Field swimming pool, calling it a “no class act by a bunch of overpaid, immature, arrogant, spoiled brats.”After the video, there was a moment of silence for McCain. A No. 18 jersey with the name “McCain” hung in the Diamondbacks’ dugout.In a statement, Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall said, “I am honored to consider him a friend and we will miss seeing his smiling face in the stands.”UP NEXTMariners: After a day off, the Mariners open two-game series in San Diego on Tuesday, with RHP Felix Hernandez (8-11, 5.64 ERA) on the mound against RHP Jacob Nix (1-2, 6.17).Diamondbacks: Arizona opens a three-game series in San Francisco. LHP Patrick Corbin (10-4, 3.17) starts for the Diamondbacks and RHP Chris Stratton (8-7, 5.37) pitches for the Giants.