We Scored Some Runs | Pirates 9 Orioles 3

For all of you readers out there that are early and immature in your baseball fanhood, here's a secret - when your team scored 9 runs in a game, there's a really good chance they are going to win that game.

The Pittsburgh Pirates did just that tonight and broke out of their 4-game losing streak in a big way. They collected 15 hits en route to a 9-3 victory over the same Baltimore Orioles team that handed them a tough 8-3 loss last night.

Jose Tabata, Josh Harrison, Garrett Jones, Andrew McCutchen, and Neil Walker got things off on the right foot in the first inning, as they combined to bring in 3 runs for the Pirates. The big hit was Jones 2-RBI double that nearly cleared the right center field fence. They would add 1 run in the 3rd and another in the 4th before being shut out the 5th and 6th. The offense wasn't satisfied with 5 however and scored 1 more in the 7th and 3 more in the eighth. Xavier Paul and Walker had RBI hits in that 8th inning.

Hits came from all over tonight. Mike McKenry and Ronny Cedeno were the 4th and 5th Pirates players to collect 2 hits tonight (Tabata, Harrison, and Walker also did it). Other hits were added by Brandon Wood, Jones, McCutchen, Paul, and Matt Diaz.

James McDonald had another solid yet short outing. He allowed 2 home runs and threw a lot of pitches through 4 innings and was taken out in the 5th inning. His final line was 4.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 4 walks and 3 strikeouts. The bullpen did a fantastic job preserving the lead, pitching 4.1 shutout innings. Chris Resop, Tony Watson, Jose Veras, and Tim Wood all pitched scoreless innings (1.1 innings in Resop's casee), and Resop was the only one to surrender a hit. Good stuff from the bullpen locking down this much needed victory.

The Pirates are now 36-37 and will gain a game on St. Louis but stay 4 games behind Milwaukee, who is now in sole possession of first place after a win tonight over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Cardinals have been struggling mightily lately and things are not looking up with the recent loss of Albert Pujols for 4-6 weeks. If the Brewers hit a rough patch and the Reds continue to be inconsistent, it won't take much for the Pirates to get near the top of this division. However, the Brew Crew looks very strong and a bad stretch of losing doesn't look likely right now.

The Pirates will finish up the series with the Baltimore Orioles tomorrow with an afternoon game that starts at 12:35.