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The Pirates left about eight hours later as the latest hottest team in baseball.

Freddy Sanchez hit his first career grand slam in the opener and then sparked the game-winning rally in the nightcap, as the Pirates swept the Cincinnati Reds in a twi-night doubleheader at PNC Park.

The Pirates won the opener, 6-4 and the second game, 3-2, to give them a major League-leading 17 wins in August.

It was the Pirates' first doubleheader sweep over the Reds in seven years, and gives the surging club their 10th win in the past 13 games. The Pirates, who are 17-10 in August, are 8 1/2 games out of first place.

The Reds had entered the game with a major League-best six-game winning streak and an NL-best 29-19 record since July 3.

"We did a great job tonight," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said in the clubhouse after a pair of down-to-the-wire nail-biters. "We're doing all right."

Matt Capps earned the save in both games, striking out pinch-hitter Adam Dunn to end the first game and pinch-hitter Ken Griffey Jr., the No. 6 all-time home run hitter, to complete the sweep.

Capps needed 27 pitches to get out of the ninth inning in the opener and has pitched six times in the past seven days. But he fanned Griffey, owner of 591 career home runs, with a runner on first base for his 15th save.

"My legs were pretty much gone," Capps said, "but my arm felt good."

With the score tied at 2-all in the eighth inning of the nightcap, Sanchez tripled to deep left-center off Reds reliever Bill Bray (3-1). The next batter, Adam LaRoche, singled through a drawn-in infield for a 3-2 lead.

Shawn Chacon (5-4) got the win in relief for the Pirates, who turned four double plays.

In the opener, Sanchez finished 3 for 3 with a career-high five RBI, highlighted by the fourth-inning grand slam off Elizardo Ramirez (0-2).

Tom Gorzelanny (13-7) allowed four earned runs and eight hits in six-plus innings. He threw 99 pitches, only 59 for strikes. But he did enough to become the first Pirates left-hander to win more than 12 games in a season since Denny Neagle went 14-6 in 1996.

The Pirates tied a home run record in the opener when Jason Bay hit his team-leading 20th. It was the Pirates' major League-leading 43rd home run in August, tying the team record for most home runs in a month, set 60 years ago.

The Pirates had trailed for most of the second game. The trailed, 2-0, after two innings. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo allowed one hit over the first four innings, retiring 11 in a row at one point.

But the Pirates strung together three consecutive singles to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth inning. Matt Kata's pinch-hit single off reliever Gary Majewski tied the score, 2-2, in the seventh.

Pirates starter Paul Maholm allowed two earned runs and 10 hits in seven innings. He was helped by three of the team's four double plays behind him.

"Everything was up early," Maholm said. "Once I settled in, I was changing speeds and keeping everything down."

The bullpen, like it has so many times over the past two weeks, did its job. Five relievers allowed no runs over the final three innings in the opener. In the second game, four relievers allowed no runs in two innings.

"The bullpen did what they are supposed to do," Gorzelanny said of a group that has allowed four earned runs in its past 35 2/3 innings, a 1.01 ERA. "They did what they normally do, and that's shut the door down."

In the opener, the Pirates built a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ronny Paulino hit a leadoff single and Gorzelanny blooped a single to left-center for his fourth hit in 70 career at-bats. With two outs, Bautista walked to load the bases, and Sanchez hit a 1-0 pitch into the center-field shrubs for his 11th home run of the season.

The Reds fought back. They trimmed the Pirates' lead to 6-4 on Jorge Cantu's sixth-inning home run and added two more runs, ending Gorzelanny's day in the seventh.

But John Grabow got out of the inning. Shawn Chacon and Damaso Marte tossed a scoreless eighth, as Marte struck out Griffey Jr. to end the inning with a runner on second. Capps struck out Dunn with the tying runners on base.

"They taxed Matt Capps pretty good," Tracy said. "He did a terrific job."

But Sanchez was the hero. He has reached base safely in 28 of his past 29 games. He is hitting .363 during that span, and has hit nine of his 11 home runs since the All-Star break. He has lifted his batting average from .206 in late April to a team-best .311.

"Freddy has done everything," Tracy said, "and then some."

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