Gamethread: Pirates send Charlie Morton to the hill, look to sweep Angels

The Pirates look to make it four in a row and to sweep the Angels today as Charlie Morton (1-1, 1.74) takes the hill against Joe Blanton (1-10, 5.62) at Angels Stadium of Anaheim. A win would put the Pirates a season-high 16 games over .500, which was the high-water mark they reached four times last year, the latest being August 8.

Morton, making his third start of the season, is coming off an outing in Cincinnati where he went 5.1, giving up three hits and no runs to get his first win of the season. Morton made his Major League debut and won his first big league game at Angel Stadium on 6/14/08; a 9-4 decision over Ervin Santana while pitching with Atlanta (6.0ip/5h/3r/3er/1bb/4so).

A win today would also be only the Pirates fourth sweep in 17 years of interleague play and their first on the road.

As you will see in the lineups (comments) Cutch gets the day off. Pedro is batting third and Tony Sanchez is the DH.