This is a fun baseball team. With the Pirates looking for runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Travis Snider stepped up to the plate and launched at 458 bomb to right center that bounced into the Allegheny River from a part of the riverwalk that you rarely see balls landing. An inning later, the Brewers brought Luis Figaro into the game. After an error and a lineout, the Pirates recorded five hits (a Starling Marte double and singles by Snider, Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, and Neil Walker) on 12 pitches against Figueroa. That quickly, a tense game turned into a laugher.
Francisco Liriano was much the same as his debut against the Mets; his control was good, he generated a bunch of swings and misses, and he had to throw a ton of pitches just to get through 5 2/3 innings. I'd like to see him last a little deeper into the games, but for now I'll definitely take 5 2/3 innings, seven strikeouts, two walks, and a run from Liriano. The Pirates can get away with that for as long as Justin Wilson is pitching like a multiple-inning bullpen ace; he came in tonight to bail Liriano out of trouble in the sixth, pitched a perfect seventh, and by the time the eighth inning rolled around the game was over.
I can't say for sure, but I think when Andrew McCutchen emerged from Tuesday night's home plate dog-pile yelling, "Come on! Come on!" this is the end to the series that he had in mind. This is the fourth straight four-game series that the Pirates have won the last three games of, it gives them a winning record against the Brewers for the year, and it puts them at a season-high seven games over .500 with the Astros and Cubs next on the schedule. This is a good time to be playing good baseball. Let's hope the Pirates can keep it up.
