Charlie Morton got his 3rd win of the season today, defeating Ubaldo Jimenez. Morton didn't have his best stuff today and struggled with location. He walked 5 batters in only 5.1 innings pitched and gave up 4 earned runs (only 2 of which he was completely responsible for as Michael Crotta couldn't erase the inherited runners in the 6th) and struck out only 1. Morton was in trouble a handful of times but did enough to limit the damage and get his team a win. It was another encouraging start for Morton, it's really good to see a Pirates pitcher get a win even when he doesn't pitch all that well.
The bullpen had another spectacular day, going 3.2 scoreless innings. You can't say enough about how well those guys have been performing lately. Chris Resop and Jose Veras have been absolute money in the late innings, which is especially important with the recent injury to Evan Meek. It's good to see those guys play well, it was a major question mark heading into this season.
The big story of today was the offense. This team was scoring less than 3.5 runs per game before today, and they put up an 8 spot on a pitching staff featuring one of the game's best pitchers. The top performer was Xavier Paul, who was making his first start as a Pirate. Paul got his first Pirate hit with a 2-run triple in the 2nd inning, and added another hit later on in the game. Garrett Jones has been quietly effective so far this year, he added 2 more hits and 3 more RBI to his totals this year and is now hitting .278 on the year. Lyle Overbay busted out of his slump with 2 hits, and Pedro Alvarez showed more positive signs with 2 hits of his own.
There's another post coming up in just a little bit that will take an extensive look at the Pirates performance in April, but for now here's the updated offense and starting pitching stats:
