Andrew McCutchen's inside-the-park homer keys 6-3 Pirates win

Andrew McCutchen's stand-up inside-the-park home run in the fifth inning highlighted the Pirates' 6-3 win over a listless Phillies team Wednesday night.

Jerome Williams hit the first two batters he faced in the first inning, and McCutchen singled to load the bases before Russell Martin brought home two runs with a single. The Phillies got one back against Vance Worley in the second, though, and then took the lead as Worley loaded the bases in the fourth and then gave up a two-run single to Williams.

It was the second time this series that the opposing pitcher got to the Pirates. And at least for a while, Williams was getting the job done on the pitching side, too, despite his unimpressive stuff. Both starters benefited at times from a really wacky strike zone throughout the game, but the Pirates somehow let the journeyman Williams rack up eight strikeouts in five innings.

No matter, though. In the fifth, McCutchen hit a deep fly ball to center, and Ben Revere ran back and jumped at it at the wall even though it was obviously going to fly over his head. The ball caromed at an extreme angle into right field, and I have no idea what the right fielder was doing, and so by the time McCutchen rounded second, there was no one within 30 feet of the ball. McCutchen easily came around the bases to score. And then, later in the inning, Martin added a home run of the more traditional variety to make it 4-3.

In the sixth, the Phillies seemingly waved the white flag, sending out Luis Garcia, a hard-throwing 27-year-old righty who has had control problems this season and has no track record of big-league success. Garcia surrendered singles to Jordy Mercer and Andrew Lambo, and then Josh Harrison and Starling Marte knocked in a run apiece to pad the Pirates' lead. Bobby LaFromboise, John Holdzkom, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon then cruised through the late innings as the Bucs wrapped up the win.