NEW YORK ? Even when Paul Maholm yielded five runs in the fourth inning Saturday, Pirates manager John Russell did not take him out of the game.
After all, why yank the team's best hitter? Maholm smacked his first career home run, the lone bright spot of the Pirates' 10-1 wipeout against the New York Mets.
The Pirates have lost seven in a row, 11 of their past 12 games.
Maholm went deep leading off the fifth inning, reaching down to get a good pitch from John Maine and launching over the right field wall. It was one of just five hits the Pirates managed.
But the Pirates pay Maholm to pitch ? and on this day he did not earn his keep.
Maholm worked five innings and allowed seven runs on 10 hits. His ERA jumped by more than a point to 4.06.
Maholm was done in by a half-dozen softie hits in the Mets' five-run second inning. The big blows were Fernando Tatis' bloop RBI single to center and Jose Reyes' two-run single, which crawled over the second base bag.
The big inning gave the Mets a 6-0 lead.
