Francisco Liriano didn't really seem to have his best stuff tonight, but that hardly mattered at all. He walked five hitters in his seven innings, but the Rockies only managed two hits off of him, and so they didn't score at all. The Pirates constantly seemed like they were falling one hit short of an offensive breakout all night, but when you score in five straight innings, it's OK if you only managed one run an inning. Jose Tabata homered and tripled, Gaby Sanchez had two RBI singles, Andrew McCutchen had a double, a single, a run scored, and an RBI, and Starling Marte scored twice. That's some nice, clustered production from the top of the lineup.
The Pirates briefly appeared to be in trouble in the eighth inning when Tony Watson gave up three hits in four batters, then Bryan Morris came in to relieve him and immediately gave up an RBI single. Morris induced a ground ball double play after that, though, and then Mark Melancon came on for his typical 13-pitch inning to close the game out.
The Pirates won. The Cardinals lost. The season is 110 games old and the Pirates have won 60% of their games.
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