PITTSBURGH (AP) – Nick Johnson drove in two runs with a tiebreaking double in the 11th inning and the Washington Nationals avoided a second consecutive series sweep by rallying to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 Sunday.

Washington ended a five-game losing streak and denied the Pirates their first three-game series sweep since they took three from the Reds on July 23-25, 2004. Pittsburgh did sweep a four-game series against the Brewers earlier this season.

The Nationals rallied from a 3-0 deficit on Alfonso Soriano’s 29th homer and pinch-hitter Alex Escobar’s tying two-run drive as starter Livan Hernandez and five relievers held the Pirates to a run over the last 10 innings.

Mike Stanton (2-5) pitched a scoreless 10th for the victory and Jon Rauch finished up in the 11th.

Marlon Anderson started the 11th with a pinch-hit double off Roberto Hernandez (0-3), the seventh of Pittsburgh’s eight pitchers, and Hernandez threw wildly on Soriano’s sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and third. Two batters later, Johnson doubled down the left-field line for his third hit of the game. Jose Guillen later added a two-run double against Victor Santos.

Johnson hit .417 with eight RBIs against the Pirates this season.

Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm, 1-4 over his last eight starts, held the Nationals to a run over six innings before Escobar’s homer tied it at 3 in the seventh. Escobar hasn’t started since the Nationals acquired Austin Kearns from the Reds during the All-Star break but is 6-for-6 with two homers and six RBIs in his last three games.

Soriano, who led off Saturday night’s game with a homer, hit his 29th of the season and fifth in 10 games in the third.

Washington starter Livan Hernandez, roughed up for seven runs in 1 2-3 innings in his last start July 6 against Florida, looked like he might not last much longer after giving up three runs in the first. Jose Bautista doubled and scored on Freddy Sanchez’s single and, after Jason Bay doubled, Sean Casey hit a two-run single.

But Hernandez didn’t allow a runner past second base over the next five innings. He gave up three runs and seven hits over six innings.

Maholm also gave up seven hits and three runs, over 6 1-3 innings, and has fewer victories (2) in 19 starts this season than the three he had in his first six career starts last season.

Notes: Washington was swept in three games by San Diego immediately before the All-Star break. … Escobar’s homer was his 11th in the majors and first as a pinch hitter. … Casey is 13-of-25 (.520) in his career against Hernandez. … Nationals starting pitchers are winless in their last nine games. … Washington 3B Ryan Zimmerman ran his hitting streak to 14 with two singles. … Livan Hernandez’s first start after the All-Star game was backed up two days to Sunday because of a sore right knee. … So much for the Pirates getting an attendance spillover from the All-Star game: The crowd was 18,908, small even by their standards for a summer weekend game. … The Pirates have lost 21 of 27.

AP-ES-07-16-06 1731EDT