This is how you break out of an extended losing streak/slump:
- Neil Walker singles to center, Gregory Polanco scores.
- Starling Marte out on a sac fly to right, Neil Walker scores.
- Pedro Alvarez doubles to center, Andrew McCutchen scores.
- Starling Marte singles to center, Neil Walker scores.
- Chris Stewart singles to center, Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte score.
- Andrew McCutchen singles to left, Gregory Polanco scores.
For a team that hadn’t scored a run any way other than a solo home run since Saturday, this was a veritable avalanche. And of course, there’s one name all over that list that stands out: Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen had three hits, he scored twice, and he drove a run in. This was his first three-hit game of 2015 and in fact, he’s only had three hits over a two-game span three times this year. The whole top of the lineup was all over the base paths tonight: Gregory Polanco had a hit and two walks, Neil Walker had two hits and two walks, McCutchen had three hits and a walk, and Starling Marte had a hit and a walk. In other words, it was nice to see the Pirates break out of this losing streak with exactly the sort of game that we all know that they’re capable of.
AJ Burnett continued his very strong start to 2015 with seven strong innings, holding the Reds to two runs on seven hits and two walks, striking out four. Burnett doesn’t quite have the swing-and-miss stuff that he had when he left Pittsburgh over a year ago, but he’s turned a sort of ideal version of what we’ve all wanted to see Charlie Morton become.
It’s only one game, of course, but nothing can start without one game.
Image: Justin K. Aller, Getty Images
