Nice win today for the Pirates, who return to .500 and leave themselves in decent shape with a very tough series against the Boston Red Sox coming up. The Bucs scored two when they started the first inning with three straight hits (including a great bunt by Josh Harrison, and I've been complaining less about some of the Bucs' bunts recently because a fair number of them have had some chance of working as hits, as opposed to merely being sacrifices).
The Pirates gave those two back in the third inning, then allowed two more in the fourth on a two-run double by J.J. Hardy. At that point, I was frustrated that the Bucs had blown their early lead. But they grabbed an extra run in the bottom of the inning on a double by Andrew McCutchen and a groundout by Neil Walker, then picked up two more in the fifth when Brandon Wood and Michael McKenry started the inning with singles and then Harrison hit a grounder that went through the legs of Orioles second baseman Blake Davis, who was making a major-league debut that I'm sure he wishes he could have back.
Kevin Correia got through six innings, striking out five and walking one but allowing four runs. The Pirates' bullpen got through three scoreless frames. The Bucs didn't need to use Jeff Karstens, fortunately, although it I was curious to see how the end of the game would play out when the Pirates used three relievers in the seventh - Tim Wood and Dan McCutchen were unavailable.
Also, the Pirates demoted Andrew Lambo to Altoona; the newly-reacquired Josh Rodriguez will take his spot at Indianapolis. Lambo had been horrific at Class AAA, so this makes sense, but it's a shame that he needs to head down - he's been at Class AA since 2008.