A winning road trip

I finally was able to watch a complete Pirate game in St.Louis on their last day and saw the Bucs take a 3-1 win behind seven shutout innings thrown by Kevin Correia,who improved to 2-0.
Joel Hanrahan notched the fourth save of the season,which means he has saved every win this season
Neil Walker homered (2) in the win for Pittsburgh.
Combining the split of the previous two Missouri games and the two out of three wins in Chicago,the Pirates head home for today's home opener with a surprising 4-2 record.

Pitching Matchup:
Colorado: Esmil Rogers (Season Debut) at Pittsburgh:Paul Maholm (0-0 0.00 ERA) 1:35

Pirate Hooks

1) Kevin Correia looked good again for his second straight start,but keep in mind one thing-two balls hit off him looked gone off the bat and the April breeze kept the ball in the playing field.
Those balls are homers in a month.

2) Neil Walker's homer continued his strong road trip and showed the offensive value in keeping him at second base.
Occasionally,you hear about Walker moving back to third,where he is better defensively when the inevitable day arrives that Pedro Alvarez moves to first.
I disagree as the value of Walker's bat at second far outweighs that of his bat at third.

3) Not often that you see back to back ground rule doubles,but Andrew McCutchen and Lyle Overbay did just that in the ninth inning,producing a run.
McCutchen's had the harder hit ball,but Overbay placed the ball right where he needed to down the line.

4) Evan Meek pitched the eighth after struggling in Chicago and his other appearance against the Cardinals.
Meek is still in the learning stages,despite his excellent 2010 and will be prone to the bad outing.
Most gas throwers in relief are....

5) I did see the first six innings of the Pirate win on Monday,so I saw the Charlie Morton portion of the game.
I have been a vocal critic of Morton in the past,but I have never denied his ability,just the results.
Morton has been reported to have lowered his arm slot in the off season and he allowed just three hits and no runs over six innings as he was the winning pitcher.
Morton looked good,but two red flags,five walks and two strikeouts.
Too many of one and not enough of the other...

6) The Pirates did sign lefty reliever Dan Meyer,who had just been released by the Phillies.
The once touted prospect was assigned to Indianapolis and looks to be the top choice to be promoted in the event Garrett Olson struggles as the only southpaw in the bullpen.

7) Josh Rodriguez made his first MLB start and after a 0 for 3 with 2 whiffs tossed in with a throwing error,it still was memorable to one other person-Cardinal starter Chris Carpenter,who fanned Rodriguez for his 1,500th career strikeouts.

Hope to be back later with cleaning of the inbox and answering some emailed questions about the Muni on Tuesday.

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images