Winning Road Series: Pirates 3 Cardinals 1

The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals today by the score of 3-1. The offense came from an RBI double from Ryan Doumit, a solo home run from Neil Walker, and another RBI double from Lyle Overbay. The Pirates collected 11 hits and only struck out 6 times today, pretty impressive stuff when you see who was on the mound.

Despite the pretty successful offensive day, the story was Kevin Correia, who went 7 scoreless innings. He probably could have pitched another inning but was forced out of the game as he was coming to the plate with a runner on third and 2 outs in the top of the 8th. Correia allowed only 5 hits and struck out 3 in his 7 innings. He threw 16 of his first pitches for strikes, and was only hit hard a couple times. Colby Rasmus came about 3 feet away from a 3-run homer in the mid-innings, but that was really the only scare Correia gave us. He got through his 7 innings on 89 pitches, a very efficient day for him.

The only hint of negativity we can muster is to say that Correia let the ball get in the air quite a bit. He got only 7 outs by the groundball and 11 by the flyball. Correia has always been more of a flyball pitcher, and it didn't hurt him as much pitching in San Diego. I'm a little bit worried about that when he starts pitching in the more hitter friendly parks of the NL Central, but tonight it wasn't an issue.

Correia now has 13 innings pitched as a Pirate and has allowed only 2 earned runs. He has 2 wins for his effort and is looking great.

The Pirates open up their home schedule tomorrow as they host the Colorado Rockies in a 1:35 game. I'll be there, so be sure to follow me on twitter for updates.