It takes a performance approaching perfection for a team like the Pirates to keep up with a contender, but that is precisely what they found in thoroughly beating the Atlanta Braves, 5-0, tonight at PNC Park.

They needed to get great starting pitching, not just good, and found seven scoreless innings from James McDonald.

They needed to make all the plays, and found gems from Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez.

Mostly in this one, they needed to find a way to muster something, anything off Atlanta ace Tim Hudson, who looked every bit his 15-6 record and 2.30 ERA in opening with four perfect innings. But they did that, too, by shattering a scoreless tie with five runs in the seventh, highlighted by Ronny Cedeno's two-run triple and Delwyn Young's two-run home run.

Hudson had held the Pirates to three hits entering the seventh, but that changed violently.

After one out, Garrett Jones doubled off the center-field fence. Alvarez followed suit with a double off the base of the Clemente Wall, and the game's first run crossed. Atlanta manager Bobby Cox ordered an intentional walk of Ryan Doumit for Hudson to face Cedeno, and Cedeno launched a 1-1 sinker into the right-center gap for the two-run triple.

Upon sliding headfirst into third, Cedeno rose to his knees, looked into the dugout and clapped emphatically.

The surprises kept coming.

John Russell, the Pirates' manager, ordered a suicide squeeze with Chris Snyder batting and, when the Braves countered with a pitchout, Snyder lunged well outside the zone to foul it off and save Cedeno, drawing an ovation from the crowd of 11,070 that was nearly as loud as for some of the big hits.

Snyder struck out, and Young was next as pinch-hitter. Cox switched relievers to left-hander Eric O'Flaherty to turn Young right-handed, and that, too, backfired: Young crushed an 0-2 fastball into the second deck of bleachers for his seventh home run, and it was 5-0.

Yes, five runs without a single.

McDonald's seven zeroes came around five hits and three walks, two of those intentional. He was not at his most explosive, but he stayed aggressive -- pitching coach Ray Searage's primary emphasis of late -- and matched his longest outing of the season.

McDonald had help: Tabata threw out Jason Heyward trying to stretch a hit into a double in the fourth, Alvarez's diving stab in the sixth robbed Omar Infante of a leadoff double, and Alvarez ended that same inning with a 5-4-3 double play after Derrek Lee had stepped to the plate with bases loaded.

Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan finished it off, Hanrahan pitching the ninth after a 43-minute rain delay, just as those two had the yesterday for Brian Burres.

All that, and Neil Walker extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an eighth-inning double.

Tomorrow, the Pirates can win three in a row for the first time since they did so June 30-July 2. There have been only four three-game winning streaks all season, none as long as four.

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