Michael McKenry (?!) keys 7-4 win over Marlins

The Pirates' offense came alive with seven runs on 14 hits as the Bucs beat the Marlins on Saturday, 7-4.

Michael McKenry hurt himself late in the game, but not before he had four hits and made a great stop in the fifth inning to save a run on a ball thrown behind Placido Polanco. That's more hits than McKenry has had since something like mid-May, so the scene felt like a dying man making sure to pay off all his debts before croaking. With Russell Martin banged up, McKenry stayed in, but he could hardly run out a ground ball in the ninth, so it looks possible that the Pirates will have to call up Tony Sanchez for tomorrow's game.

The Pirates scored three in the first on doubles by Starling Marte, Neil Walker, and Garrett Jones, and McKenry's RBI single. The Marlins got one run in the bottom of the inning, but the Pirates scored two more in the third on singles by Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Jones and McKenry.

Which was a good thing, because Charlie Morton's bottom half of the inning was a bit of a mess. He gave up a single to Christian Yelich, then a double to Giancarlo Stanton. Then Logan Morrison brought home a run with a single, and Polanco brought home another with a ground-ball single two batters later. When the inning finally ended, the Bucs were only up 5-4. Morton left after five, giving up four runs but striking out six, walking none and getting six ground ball outs.

The Bucs' bullpen took over from there. Justin Wilson, Bryan Morris and Tony Watson combined for three scoreless innings, and the Pirates tacked on insurance runs in the sixth and eighth. Mark Melancon walked Adeiny Hechavarria to lead off the ninth, but got the next batter, Yelich, to ground into a double play. Stanton singled, but Melancon finished off the save by getting Morrison to ground out.