Young’s homer, Maholm’s strong 7 innings lead Pirates to fourth straight win, 6-2 over Royals

Maholm, Young lead Pirates past Royals 6-2

PITTSBURGH — Delwyn Young homered and drove in a career-high four runs to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to their fourth straight win, 6-2 over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.

Paul Maholm allowed only two runs in seven innings and Jack Wilson and Adam LaRoche each had two hits and an RBI for Pittsburgh, which clinched a winning record in interleague play for only the second season since the format was adopted 12 years ago.

Willie Bloomquist had two hits and scored twice, and Billy Butler had two RBI singles for the Royals, who got an effective start from Bruce Chen, making his first major league appearance in more than two years.

Kansas City (31-42) fell to a season-low 11 games under .500.

Maholm (5-4) entered the game with the best home ERA in the NL, a number that climbed to 1.96 after his strong outing. Making his first start of the month at PNC Park, Maholm allowed only five hits and a walk, winning for only the second time since April 22.

Young’s homer — his second of the season and fifth of his career — was to straightaway center with Freddy Sanchez and LaRoche aboard in the fourth. That put the Pirates ahead to stay, 3-2.

Young added an RBI single in the eighth.

Butler drove in Bloomquist with RBI singles twice during the first three innings. Each time, Bloomquist’s speed helped set it up. He hit his fifth triple in the first and stole his 13th base in the third.

Wilson gave Pittsburgh an insurance run in the seventh when his two-out single drove in Andy LaRoche, who had tripled.

Adam LaRoche added an RBI single in the eighth.

Making his first appearance since April 20, 2007, and first start since Aug. 4, 2006, Chen (0-1) allowed seven baserunners and faced only four over the minimum through six innings.

The lefthander, who had Tommy John surgery on his elbow two years ago, would be charged with four runs on seven hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

NOTES: Pittsburgh is 8-6 against the American League with Sunday’s game the final interleague contest of the season. The Pirates, worst in the majors at 71-109 against the AL, went 8-7 against the AL in 2001. … The Pirates won their 10th in a row when playing in front of home crowds of at least 20,000 and are 11-1 overall in those games. The attendance on fireworks night was 36,032. … Chen — who appeared in a game for his 10th different team — had a single, his first hit since May 21, 2006. … For the second consecutive game, each team wore replica Negro League uniforms.