Marlins 6, Pirates 2

Kevin Correia struggled through a five-run fourth inning as the Pirates lost to the Marlins Tuesday, 6-2.

The Bucs scored one in the first when Andrew McCutchen walked and Pedro Alvarez singled with two outs. Garrett Jones then hit a grounder between first and second, and McCutchen came around to score. Alvarez and Jones moved up to third and second, respectively, thanks to a bad throw from Giancarlo Stanton, but Clint Barmes lined out to end the rally.

The Pirates gave one back in the bottom of the inning, on an RBI double by Hanley Ramirez, but Correia was bailed out when Stanton hit a ball a million miles an hour right at Barmes, who tossed the ball to Neil Walker to double Ramirez off second. In the second, Correia gave up a triple to Emilio Bonifacio, but only needed two pitches to get groundouts from John Buck and Josh Johnson to retire the side.

it wasn't until the fourth that things got bad. Stanton started the inning with a walk. Then there were singles by Greg Dobbs and Bonifacio to load the bases. Then Buck plated two runs with a single. Then, after a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk, Omar Infante knocked in two runs with a groundball single, and Ramirez doubled again, narrowly missing a homer but driving in Jose Reyes. Jose Tabata and Walker gunned down Infante at the plate, and Chris Resop came in and struck out Logan Morrison, but the damage had already been done. Michael McKenry hit his second homer of the season in the seventh, but Johnson and the Fish still swam to victory.

By the way, Pat has a short piece advocating removing Correia from the rotation. I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that I agree -- Correia wasn't a particularly good option even before this season, and now he has 14 strikeouts, 15 walks and five homers allowed in 40 innings.

But if you don't want to read more negativity from Bucs Dugout, forget about Correia and focus on Brad Lincoln. Erik Bedard is supposed to return on Wednesday, which would bump Lincoln from the rotation. I'm not sure about Lincoln's viability as a starter in the long term, but there's no time like the present for the Pirates to see exactly what they have. Lincoln, James McDonald and Jason Grilli are arguably the Pirates who have done the most to improve their stock this season. The Bucs should go ahead and give Lincoln a shot and see what he does with it. With the depth the Pirates now have at Class AAA, Correia is almost completely superfluous, but if the Pirates wanted to keep him in the team, they could use him out of the bullpen.