Andrew McCutchen paces Pirates in 5-3 win

Andrew McCutchen homered, hit two doubles and made a great sliding catch on Sunday as the Pirates won 5-3 to take three of four from the Dodgers.

In the first inning, McCutchen doubled, and Ike Davis walked behind him. Russell Martin's walk moved both runners up, and Pedro Alvarez brought home McCutchen and Davis with a ground-ball single. After the Dodgers scored one on a Justin Turner single in the second, McCutchen made it 3-1 with a solo homer in the third.

Turner hit a solo homer in the fourth, and Edinson Volquez exited after throwing 79 pitches through five innings. It was a brief start, but a strong one -- Volquez struck out six and walked one, again throwing in the mid-90s, as he had in his previous outing.

McCutchen doubled again to lead off the sixth, then came around to score on another single by Alvarez. And then the Pirates' bullpen took over. Justin Wilson pitched the sixth, and after Josh Harrison tacked on an insurance run with a solo homer in the top of the seventh, Tony Watson pitched a 1-2-3 inning with some help from McCutchen and his diving catch on Drew Butera's fly ball.

Mark Melancon pitched a clean eighth, then gave way to Jason Grilli, who whiffed the first two batters he faced in the ninth, but then walked two in a row. Scott Van Slyke then hit a fly ball that Starling Marte couldn't quite get to, and a run came home to make it 5-3. But Grilli got Dee Gordon to line out to end the game.