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Phillies 11, Pirates 8

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- J.D. Durbin is doing just enough to help the Phillies win games. With the potent Philadelphia offense, he doesn't need to do that much.

Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell homered, and Durbin won his fourth consecutive start and the Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-8 on Friday night.

"You don't have to be perfect," said Durbin, who is with his fourth organization this season, having been waived three times. "Going out there and giving six innings and three runs, this team is going to win. It's evident."

Jimmy Rollins had three hits and scored three runs, and Tadahito Iguchi reached base three times, had two RBIs and scored twice for the Phillies, who had 16 hits and have won four of five to remain in second place in the NL East.

"More times than not, if we give up three or four runs, we'll be right in it at the end of the game," Rowand said. "We gave him a little breathing room, gave him a lead. Any pitcher feels more comfortable out there when you have runs to work with."

Matt Kata, Ronny Paulino and Jose Bautista each homered run for the Pirates, who have lost four of five and have the worst record in the National League (50-70).

Durbin (5-2) allowed three runs and four hits in six innings. He beat the Pirates in his most recent start July 28 in Philadelphia and had made three relief appearances since.

"It's amazing that he's got through [waivers] three times," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "But it also tells you that those three teams thought that he could pitch in the big leagues and that he would be a help to their team. That's how I look at it."

Burrell's home run in the sixth inning was the 1,000th hit of his career. The two-run shot capped a four-run inning and put Philadelphia ahead 9-3.

"It's nice, but then you look also at guys that have 3,000," Burrell said. "It's nice, but it seems like a small number compared to some of the other guys."

The Phillies also scored four times in the fifth. Rollins and Iguchi hit back-to-back doubles, and three batters later, Rowand hit a three-run homer to right-center, his 20th.

The fifth was the final inning for Tom Gorzelanny (11-7). The lefty had allowed as many as five earned runs only once since June 14, but Friday permitted five and nine hits with two walks in five innings, striking out three.

"This whole game I wasn't hitting my spots," said Gorzelanny, who shut out San Francisco on Sunday and had a team-high scoreless innings streak of 14 1/3 innings snapped Friday. "I made a bunch of mistake pitches and they took advantage of them."

The Pirates scored in the first inning when Nate McLouth scored from first on a Freddy Sanchez single to right.

The Phillies tied the game in the second on doubles by Rollins and Burrell, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.

Sanchez drove in another run in the third on a sacrifice fly. He has reached base safely in 18 straight games.

Kata's third home run of the season and first with Pittsburgh came while pinch-hitting for Gorzelanny and got the Pirates to within 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth.

"I give our offense credit," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "They kept battling. We took some good at bats. We didn't pitch particularly well tonight."

Paulino's solo shot, his ninth, came in the seventh and Bautista drove in Jason Bay with his 10th homer and third in his past five games -- in the eighth.

Chris Coste had three hits and two RBIs for the Phillies, who had scored only nine runs in winning two of three games in Washington this week.

"It was a matter of time before we started swinging the bats again," Rowand said. "You're gonna have those ups and have those downs in the course of a season. We really came out swinging bats better tonight and got a win."

Game notes

McLouth, who singled and walked twice, has hit safely in each of his past 11 starts, having scored 11 runs in that time. Pittsburgh has at least one extra-base hit in each of the past 76 games. It is the longest such streak for the club since June 5-Aug.28, 1995. ... Philadelphia has won 14 of its past 20 games against a left-handed starter. The Phillies entered the contest having had 11 of their past 12 games decided by two runs or fewer. The Pirates have homered at least once in 17 of their past 19 games.