The Pirates split a doubleheader and took two of three from the Colorado Rockies with a 5-1 win in the late game Wednesday.
Pedro Alvarez homered in both games of the doubleheader, and also added a double in the second game, giving him four home runs and a .444 slugging percentage on the season. (His batting average remains just .156, so there’s still work to be done.) Garrett Jones also homered and had three hits for the Pirates. Charlie Morton pitched seven strong innings, allowing his only run when Ramon Hernandez hit a solo blast in the seventh.
The Pirates got all their runs in the fifth, and they received help from Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, who struggled with the sun on two key moments. After Alex Presley hit a leadoff double, Nate McLouth hit a routine fly ball that Gonzalez couldn’t handle, driving home Presley. Andrew McCutchen then knocked in McLouth when Gonzalez couldn’t see McCutchen’s shallow fly ball. That led to back-to-back homers from Jones and Alvarez, with Alvarez’s clanking off the foul pole in right.
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