Pirates Bomb Angels, 6-1

It was déja vu all over again as Pedro Alvarez opened the scoring in the 2nd for the second day in a row with a HR, the Pirates went on to put up a three-spot in the inning, and the team then cruised to victory over the Angels. Alvarez' HR was his 18th and marked the third game in a row in which he's gone deep. The other two runs came in on an RBI single by Jordy Mercer -- who might, just might, be better than Clint Barmes -- and a bases-loaded walk to Russell Martin.

The Pirates turned to the longball to pad their lead, with Andrew McCutchen launching his eighth and Gaby Sanchez his sixth. Sanchez also saved at least one run with a highlight-reel diving stop on a hard-hit grounder. The remaining run resulted from a Neil Walker double and Travis Snider single. Alvarez, Sanchez, Walker and Mercer each had two hits. The six runs came despite the team getting only one hit from the first four hitters in their lineup.

On the pitching side, Francisco Liriano struggled a little with his control, needing 104 pitches to get through six and two-thirds innings. Liriano fanned six and kept the ball in the park. He finally gave up a run in the 7th and gave way to Bryan Morris with two out in the inning. Morris and Justin Wilson both struggled with their control, combining to throw only 16 of 38 pitches for strikes, but got through the last two and a third scorelessly. According to gameday, Wilson's fastball came in at 96-99 mph.

The win for Liriano, his sixth, leaves him tied for the team lead despite the fact that he's missed nearly half the season to this point. The Pirates go for the sweep on Sunday, the game starting at 3:35pm Eastern Time.