The Pirates entered the ninth with a 6-3 lead that Octavio Dotel made tenuous by somehow allowing a two-run blast to the tiny Eugenio Velez, who now only has seven career homers. Dotel got through the rest of the inning without a problem. The solo homer by Andy LaRoche and the triple by Ryan Church (who scored on a single by Akinori Iwamura) in the eighth turned out to be pretty important insurance runs. Elsewhere, the Pirates got a homer by Iwamura, good outings from Evan Meek and Brendan Donnelly, and a whole bunch of pesky play by Andrew McCutchen, who now has five steals in just eight games. Paul Maholm also made an extremely cool-looking play on a grounder, which you can watch at the Pirates' official site.
The Bucs are now at .500 despite scoring twenty fewer runs than they've allowed. That won't hold, but it's nice for now.