McCutchen mashes as Buccos win!

Andrew McCutchen homered (3)as part of a four for four evening and Jose Tabata homered (2) and tripled to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-2 win over the Houston Astros at PNC Park.
Charlie Morton allowed one earned run in six innings to move to 2-3 on the season with Juan Cruz pitching the ninth for his third save of the season.
The series concludes Sunday afternoon with A.J.Burnett for the Pirates against Wandy Rodriguez for Houston.

Pirate Hooks

1) It is a damn good thing that the Pirates have Andrew McCutchen because if they did not,I have no idea how this team would score any runs at all.
Take McCutchen's .342 average from the lineup and the Pirates best hitter is Neil Walker,take Walker and the best hitter currently drops to Jose Tabata.
The McCutchen extension looks better every day...

2) Charlie Morton looked the best that he has all season in his six innings,but he still frustrates me.
Morton just works so slow and even those his Roy Halladayesque mannerisms that have helped him just make him seem so slow to the plate.
That said,I'll live with an earned run every six innings...

3) Could Jose Tabata be waking up a bit?
One hopes so after a triple and homer in this game and a triple in the series opener,but I would not want to jump to conclusions.
The Pirates could use a Tabata rebirth after a slow month of April.

4) Joel Hanrahan will return after missing the last two games due to attending his grandmother's funeral.
Hanrahan was the subject of the teams only bobblehead giveaway on Saturday and ironically was not there to enjoy the evening...

5) Brad Lincoln will get the start Monday as Erik Bedard's back has pushed his start back to Wednesday.
That is good news as Bedard will not be going on the DL with the back problems.
I thought Lincoln threw very well when I saw him pitch against the Nationals on the evening that Bedard was injured and this might be one of his last chances to solidify his role on the team...

Photo Credit:Gene Puskar-AP Photo