The Pirates had a brief lead in this one after Pedro Alvarez muscled his 22nd home run of the season out to Wrigely's left-center field in the top of the fourth, but Charlie Morton fell apart pretty much immediately after that, serving up two two-run home runs to Alfonso Soriano in the fourth and fifth innings. The Pirates really couldn't get anything going against Edwin Jackson or the Cubs' bullpen, and that was pretty much that.
Morton's line for the day looks OK besides the home runs (six strikeouts, three walks, five non-homer hits in six innings of work), but he really seemed to lose something on the ball in the fourth inning. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings he gave up the home runs plus two doubles, which is a ton of extra base hits to give up in such a short span. Really, it seemed like it could've been much worse than it was.
It's also worth noting that Neil Walker left the game with some kind of side discomfort in the fifth inning, with no word on what that really means. Brandon Inge replaced him, so hopefully Walker will be OK.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!