Rain,wind and Charlie Morton?

On a night that featured out and out downpours and high winds,Charlie Morton was flawless until allowing a Jay Bruce homer with two outs in the ninth and led the Pirates to a 6-1 win over the Reds in Cincinnati.

Morton (2-0) did retire the following batter to finish the contest with the complete game.
Neil Walker (3) and Garrett Jones (2) homered to pace the Pittsburgh attack.
The series continues this afternoon at 1:10,weather permitting

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:James McDonald (0-0 5.56 ERA) at Cincinnati:Mike Leake (1-0 6.75 ERA) 1:10

Pirate Hooks

1) I still think it is too early to say that the difference in Charlie Morton's mechanics that have been so ballyhooed will be a long term improvement,but one cannot deny that Morton has pitched very well in his three starts this season.
I would still like to see a few more strikeouts (Just six in 22 innings),but otherwise you cannot help but be pleased thus far.

2) I would be surprised if this stays this way,but the Pirate strength thus far has been the rotation.
Morton has been strong and Kevin Correia has been Morton's equal with the exception of one pitch to Prince Fielder.
Paul Maholm has been unlucky thus with his 0-2 record leaving just James McDonald as the least of the rotation and McDonald hasn't been awful for the most part.
Encouraging-for now.

3) Three hits and two RBI for Chris Snyder on the evening.
Snyder's smash down the third base line was smoked,Snyder is clearly a better defensive catcher than Ryan Doumit and if he can hit just a little bit,the Pirates might not suffer with Snyder as the transitional catcher to Tony Sanchez..

4) Four hits for Jose Tabata,who between his 300+ average and seven steals has been the teams best offensive player,without a doubt thus far.
In the infancy of the season and it is a small sample base,Tabata has been what the team expected from Andrew McCutchen....

5) The Pirates activated Joe Beimel before the game and designated Garrett Olson for assignment.
I am not a huge Beimel fan,so even though Olson is not a huge loss,I could have done without Joe Beimel..

Photo Credit-AP Photo