<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=39ceea580f&#8221; >Game 65: Pirates at Twins</a>
Well the Pirates got beat pretty hard last night, but they turned the tables around and dished out some pain of their own tonight. They did it with the help of the long ball. The Pirates his 3 home runs tonight, which has been a very rare occurrence for them this year. It all started in the 3rd inning when Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of his career and gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead. The Twins battled back and tied it at 2, but that tie was quickly broken in the 4th inning by Andy LaRoche’s two run bomb that drove in his brother Adam. Ian Snell, John Grabow, and Steven Jackson took it from there. Snell earned his first victory since April, and improved to 2-7 as he pitched 6 innings giving up only 2 runs. Snell had good stuff tonight despite striking out only 2. That’s Snell’s third consecutive start where he gave the team a chance to win, this is good news for the Pirates. Either it’s good news in the sense that he could be effective as a starter for the rest of the year with the Pirates, or good news in the sense that his trade value has gone up a bit. There are interested suitors for Snell, including rumored Colorado and Texas. I would be pretty excited if we could get a decent prospect or two for him, the sooner the better. Charlie Morton and Daniel McCutchen are hinting that the future is now. Let them pitch. 
Anyways, the third home run of the game came in the 9th by Adam LaRoche. He roped one out quickly to right field. They added on 3 runs before that bomb in the 8th with help from Robinzon Diaz’s 2 run double into the left center field gap. This was just another very well played baseball game for the Pirates. They hit, they pitched, they played defense, and they won convincingly. It’s not easy to beat the Twins in Minnesota, that was only the 13th time it happened this year. 
This all puts the Pirates record at 31-34 as we head into the rubber game tomorrow against the Twins. It’s a 1:10 start and not televised. Zach Duke takes the hill to face Nick Blackburn. Duke has been good all year long, and Blackburn has been lights out lately. He’s won 3 of his last 5 decisions and hasn’t given up more than 3 earned runs in a start since May 16th against the Yankees. The Pirates have proved to be very effective in games against good starting pitching, so let’s hope that trend continues tomorrow. I’d like to see the Pirates keep hitting home runs too, they seem to really help a team win. 
Let’s Go Bucs!