Here is Jonathan Sanchez's line from this afternoon: 

3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 5 K

And here is Kris Medlen's line: 

6 IP, 7 H, 3R, 1 BB, 6 K

That's not a line that would seem to bear well for the Pirates, but they found a way anyway today, mostly on the bullpen and on Russell Martin. The bullpen was excellent today. Combined, they went six shutout innings, struck out eight, walked four, and gave up four hits. Jeanmar Gomez went 2 1/3 and struck out three hitters, which was nice to see after he opened the year with just one strikeout in his first seven innings. Justin Wilson relieved him in the sixth with runners on first and second and one out and immediately got BJ Upton to bounce into a double play. Wilson got the first two outs in the seventh, but came out when Evan Gattis doubled off of him to make way for Jared Hughes. Hughes struck Chris Johnson out on four pitches. Tony Watson came in in the eighth and was perfect. Jason Grilli allowed a leadoff walk in the ninth, then slammed the door shut on the Braves for his seventh save and ninth straight scoreless outing. 

Of course, the Pirates needed runs to make the bullpen's effort matter. They came from a strange place today. In the second inning, after the Braves went up 2-0, the Pirates strung three hits together; a single by Pedro Alvarez, a double into the Notch by Russell Martin, and an RBI single by Clint Barmes. That was Barmes's first RBI of 2013. His second came much sooner, breaking the 2-2 tie in the sixth inning with a tweener single that scored Neil Walker. The final run came in the seventh when Travis Snider, who had a single, a double, and a walk, scored on a wild pitch. 

I singled Russell Martin out above, and it wasn't just for his RBI double that opened the scoring or for his third two-hit game of the Atlanta series. He made a big difference in the field today, too. In the first inning he completed a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play after Jonathan Sanchez walked Ramiro Pena to end the inning, then he pulled the same feat again in the seventh (literally: Justin Upton was the strike out victim, Ramiro Pena was the baserunner) to bail Justin Wilson out of a tight spot. He's thrown out five would-be basestealers this year, which is just one less than Rod Barajas nailed in 104 games as a Pirate last year.

Finally, Martin put on an absolute pitch-framing clinic late in this game. Pitch-framing is one of those nuances in baseball that it seems like it's impossible to get a consensus on. On one hand, it does seem clear that some catchers get more strikes than others year after year after year. On the other, doesn't it seem a little crazy to think that the way that Russell Martin catches the ball as a catcher could possibly be worth two wins over the course of the season compared the way that Rod Barajas catches the ball? Because pitch-framing is something that's almost impossible to visualize, I'll point out the two pitches jumped out at me in real time during this game. Watch how Martin handles the first pitch to Chris Johnson in the seventh, which crosses the plate a little bit high and a little outside. The Pirates get the strike call anyway, and that sets Jared Hughes up with an 0-1 count and lets him keep the ball low and away from Johnson for the rest of the at-bat. Watch how he handles the 1-2 pitch to BJ Upton in the ninth inning -- a pitch that obviously crossed the plate out of the strike zone but was instead called for strike three on an incredulous Upton. Both pitches were absolutely textbook receiving by Martin from his still-as-a-statue head to the ever-so-subtle glove curl. You can do what you like with this, but when people say that Martin is an excellent pitch-framer these are the pitches that they're talking about. I thought that it was something that made a noticeable difference in a couple of high-leverage situations for the Pirates today. 

We're three full weeks into the season and the Pirates are 10-8. After their 1-5 start, they're 9-3. On their nine-game homestand against some of the NL's best teams (Cincy, St. Louis, Atlanta), they were 7-2. This is all fantastic stuff, but the road doesn't get easier from here. Without the benefit of an off-day until May 2nd, the Pirates will go on the road to play four games in Philadelphia, three in St. Louis, and three in Milwaukee. 

It's easy to look at today's game and see Jonathan Sanchez and Kris Medlen on the mound and to say, "Well, the Pirates are 6-2 on this homestand already and they took two games in a row from a team that only lost twice in their first 15 games and so a loss this afternoon wouldn't be the end of the world." That's all true, of course, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to see even more from the Pirates. 

As much as the Pirates have tried to prove otherwise in 2011 and 2012, games in April count just as much in the final standings as games in August and September. The Pirates are playing really good baseball right now; they're getting hits from all over the lineup, they're fielding well, the bullpen has been mostly lights out, and even the questionable rotation has been solid more often than it's been shaky. These things don't hold true for 162 games, even for the best teams in baseball. That means that when a team is playing well, it's important to win as many games as possible. 

Medlen vs. Sanchez is a mismatch, make no mistakes about it. But Medlen has a been a little more human this year than he was last year. In his 19 innings, he's only got nine strikeouts and he's given up 15 hits and walked six batters against the less-than-stellar competition of the Phillies, Marlins, and Royals. He hasn't given up a ton of runs yet, but maybe the Pirates can make some headway against him this afternoon. They did figure out Maholm last night, after all. 

First pitch today is at 1:35.

Figuring James McDonald out is not easy. McDonald was so bad on Monday that it seemed like either a trip to the disabled list or removal from the rotation was unavoidable. On Monday, his fastball averaged a little over 90 mph and he never hit 92. His curveball seemed flat, and he got one swinging strike all night. Tonight, he was an entirely different pitcher. He still battled some command issues, but his four walks were more than offset by nine strikeouts. His fastball was much better, averaging about 91.5 mph and topping out at 94. His curveball was ridiculous and when the Braves weren't flailing after it, they were frozen in place by it. He even worked in nine sliders, by PitchFX's count, and I think some of his early strikeouts were on the slider. He looked like James McDonald -- a little wild, but with good enough stuff to overwhelm that problem. 

It's worth noting that he got some help from his fielders tonight, particularly in the fifth inning. To open the inning, BJ Upton lashed what looked like a home run to left field, but Starling Marte made what had've been the most non-chalant homer-robbing catch in baseball history. He tracked it to the wall, stood in front of the short wall in left, put his glove up, and pulled the ball in like it was a routine flyout 30 feet in front of the fence. After McDonald walked Jason Heyward, Justin Upton sent a ball to right field that looked like it was going over Jose Tabata's head, but Tabata made a nice, leaping grab of the ball at the warning track.

Of course, McDonald's stellar effort would've been wasted if the Pirates didn't become the first team to solve the Paul Maholm problem in 2013. After being shut out by Maholm for five innings, Starling Marte drew a leadoff walk (and it shouldn't be understated how nice it was to see Marte get on base twice and only strikeout once after his nightmarish game on Thursday) and scored on Andrew McCutchen's double. That was immediately followed by Gaby Sanchez re-capturing some of his Grapefruit League magic with a two-run homer to dead center that gave Tony Watson and Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli all the runs they'd need to close this one out. 

The Pirates have dealt the Braves as many losses in the last two nights as they had in the entire season prior. They've ensured a split against the Braves and a winning reecord in this difficult homestand against the Reds, Cardinals, and Braves. It's hard to overstate just how fun the Pirates have been to watch for the last two weeks. 

When the Pirates play games like they did last night, with Wandy Rodriguez cruising on the mound and the defense clicking behind him and all sorts of guys coming up with big hit after big hit, it's actually sort of easy to watch them and think, "Seriously, this team could contend for a playoff spot." It's obviously early to talk about things like that when the team in question is the Pirates, but it's one of those thoughts that's crept into my mind more than once in this homestand. 

I suspect that tonight will be much different. James McDonald is getting another start for the Pirates and that frankly seems all kinds of unacceptable after his last start agains the Cardinals. There's not really any reason to think that he'll do any better against the Braves tonight. His mound opponent tonight will be ex-Pirate Paul Maholm, who's career has taken off since joining the Braves at the trade deadline last year. In 14 starts with the Braves this year and last, Maholm has a 2.73 ERA and a 3.3 K/BB ratio, which is better than any individual season he had with the Pirates. He's started throwing what PitchFX classifies as a cutter and he also mixes in a ridiculously slow curveball that Jeff Karstens would be jealous of. In three starts this year, he's struck out 20 in 20 1/3 innings, walked just five, scattered 11 hits, and allowed zero runs. It used to be that Maholm would put up one or two excellent starts a year where he'd miss a ton of bats and look tantalizingly good, then the next time out on the mound he'd look like Regular Old Paul Maholm. Increasingly in the last half-season, Tantalizingly Good Paul Maholm is replacing Regular Old Paul Maholm. 

To counter Maholm, the Pirates are giving Pedro Alvarez the night off and starting Russell Martin at third base. Alvarez has hit two homers that have totaled 850 feet against the Braves in this series, but I have no problem giving him a night off against a lefty like Maholm. Martin has been scorching hot this week with six hits (including two doubles and a homer) in the last four games. Travis Snider will also sit in favor of Jose Tabata. I know that Tabata had a double last night and I know that the plan all year has been to platoon Snider and Tabata, but geez, Snider has pretty clearly been the Pirates' best hitter since getting his first start of the season against Arizona and he's only gone hitless in one game that he's started. Taking him out of the lineup right now doesn't feel like a great idea. 

Anyway, the first pitch of the night is at 7:05. If James McDonald's still pitching at 8 o'clock, I'll be pretty surprised. 

For almost the entire night, the Pirates had to play catch up in this game against the Braves. For most of the game, they did just that. BJ Upton lead the game off with a home run, the Pirates tied it on a sac fly. After the Pirates took a 2-1 lead on a long Russell Martin home run, the Braves took a 3-2 lead on a Chris Johnson homer. The Pirates tied the game back up on a moster Pedro Alvarez home run that hit most of the way up the batter's eye in center, only to fall behind again immediately when Justin Upton hit the rotunda with a solo homer of his own. The Pirates tied the game again on a Garrett Jones double, but then gave the Braves their final lead of the game when Evan Gattis hit the Braves' fourth home run of the night. 

A few salient points: it is difficult to win baseball games when you walk eight hitters and give up four home runs. Frankly, when you walk eight hitters and give up four homers, only allowing six runs is probably the best possible result. This springboards to the next point, which is that Jeff Locke was really bad tonight. In 4 2/3 innings, he walked four and gave up six hits. Half of those hits left the ballpark. Charlie Morton made a rehab start tonight and Francisco Liriano's second rehab start will be soon. These guys need to hurry up. The final point is this: Jared Hughes isn't fooling anyone this year. Obviously Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli can't pitch 162 innings this year apiece, which means that the Pirates need other relievers to pitch high leverage innings. They have plenty of arms that can be given chances in this role: Bryan Morris, Vic Black, and Duke Welker all come immediately to mind. Heck, even Vin Mazzaro hit 95 on the gun in his inning of relief tonight. The point is the same one that I made when Morris was demoted in favor of keeping Jeanmar Gomez on the roster: last year, the Pirates went through this terrible self-defeating cycle where after the Brad Lincoln trade they refused to use young pitchers like Justin Wilson or Bryan Morris in Pittsburgh because they were young pitchers who had never been used in big league situations. Instead, they leaned on the likes of Chad Qualls and things went terribly. 

I understand that the bullpen situation is going to be fluid for as long as the rotation is in shambles; when Jeff Locke, Jonathan Sanchez, and Bad James McDonald are in your rotation, you need Jeanmar Gomez and Vin Mazzaro and anyone capable of throwing three innings out of necessity. But the Pirates really shouldn't be afraid of giving guys like Morris (in particular) and Black and Welker (after they get some more Triple-A innings under their belts) a chance to pitch in some high leverage MLB situations, particularly if Jared Hughes keeps struggling. No one wants to see Chad Qualls or Hisanori Takahashi again, and there's no reason the Pirates should need guys like that this year. 

Finally: Pedro Alvarez has taken some good swings this week, so it was awesome to see him finally connect. I'm a little more concerned about Russell Martin given his age and the way his batting average has declined lately, but since Mike McKenry's huge game on Sunday Martin has four hits and two extra base hits in three games. In his first ten, he only had one single and one double. Hopefully he's starting to come out of his slump, too. Starling Marte did some course correction in the opposite direction tonight, striking out five times. Strikeouts are going to be a problem for him at times this year and the Braves' pitching staff is excellent, so I won't be surprised if he has a tough weekend. This is going to happen to him from time to time. What's more important will be how he adjusts after a rough night like this and how long it takes. 

I know that this is only one game of a four-game set, but given the remaining pitching matchups, the Pirates are in severe danger of being swept in this series by virtue of not beating Teheran. Let's see how they respond.

The Pirates' long homestand concludes with a four-game set against the Braves, who are almost certainly the best team in the early part of the 2013 season. The Braves are currently 12-2 and they've outscored opponents 68-27 (that is, the most runs scored and the fewest allowed) on the season. They're just steamrolling teams pretty much every night.

Of course, the Pirates are playing pretty good baseball themselves recently. They're 6-2 since the series in Los Angeles ended and the offense has really come to life. Honestly, I'm pretty excited to watch this series, if only to use as a measuring stick for the Pirates. The Bucs need one win in the next four games to guarantee a winning homestand against the Reds, Cardinals, and Braves. More than that would be a really good result against a really good Braves team. 

Tonight, Jeff Locke takes the mound against Julio Teheran. Locke hasn't been very good in either of his two starts, but he's at least kept the Pirates in both games that he's pitched. Teheran has definitely been the Braves' worst starter thus far. In his two starts, he's allowed nine of the 28 total runs the Braves have allowed as a team this season. In other words: the Pirates break out the bats tonight and see if they can't start the series off with a win because Hudson, Maholm, and Medlen are waiting in the wings. 

First pitch tonight is at 7:05. 

I've said this before, but the biggest revelation of the AJ Burnett's time in Pittsburgh is that occasionally a pitcher with great stuff can take the mound and you'll know within minutes that he's going to take the game over. It happened for Burnett a few times last summer against the Astros and once on a nearly-unforgettable night against the Cubs and it happened again on Wednesday. Sometimes, AJ Burnett takes the mound and he's going to be the best player on the field that night and there's just no doubt about it from the outset. Really, isn't that all you can hope for from a pitcher?

Burnett was perfect through 5 1/3 and held the Cardinals hitless through 6 2/3 and it seemed for a while like he was going to need to be that good to get his first win of 2013. As it turned out, the Pirates put some extra runs on the board after Shelby Miller came out of the game and turned this one into a relatively easy win. Still, when a pitcher goes out and gives you seven innings of one-hit ball, striking out eight against one of the better offensive teams in the National League, I feel like you chalk that win up to him and say, "This is exactly why a team like the PIrates needs a pitcher like AJ Burnett."

The Pirates opened their ten (nine after a rainout) game homestand against the National League's best with a record of 3-6. Now they're 7-7. I know that it's April and I know that there are four games looming against the Braves, but this has all been pretty nice. A split against the Braves puts the Pirates in much better shape than I think any of us could've hoped for before this homestand began. 

Every year I say I'm going to do better at writing regular minor league updates and every year that plan falls apart by mid-May. But it's still mid-April and it's been a loooong time since I've written about any prospects besides Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon, so let's make a trip through the minor league system and see how the Pirates' affiliates have started off their 2013 campaigns. 

Indianapolis

Obviously all eyes here are (and should be) on Gerrit Cole. His season has gotten off to an uneven start. He gave up three runs in four innings in his first start of the season, then got pulled after two innings in his second start due to a very high pitch count. That pitch count was due to giving up four hits and striking out five batters in his two innings. Last night he made his third start against Toledo and got off of a very shaky start, walking two batters in both the second and third innings. He settled down after that and mostly breezed through the fourth, fifth, and sixth before hitting an unlucky rough spot (a bunt single against an infield playing way back, a double that was mostly just a very soft line drive that found the hole between first and right) and getting pulled in the seventh. After three starts, he's gone 12 1/3 innings, striking out 12, walking six, and allowing 13 hits to go with his 3.65 ERA. I think last night's start was mostly encouraging, though, so hopefully he'll start to find a groove soon. 

Also last night, Tony Sanchez hit his first home run of the season and brought his line up to .290/.344/.483. This is obviously a huge year for him; he's 25 and he hasn't hit since his first year in the system, but I still think his defense is good enough that he can carve out a nice big league career if he can find some way to hit even a little. On the pitching side of things, Victor Black is striking out tons of guys in the bullpen (10 Ks but five walks in 7 1/3 innings over five appearances) and Andy Oliver has made two nice starts and one bad one. Kyle McPherson got bombed in his only start and is now on the disabled list with arm trouble, which is very bad news for a team with a thin rotation like the Pirates. 

Altoona

Before the season started, I figured that Jameson Taillon was either going to finish the year as one of the five or so best pitching prospects in baseball or his prospect stock was going to drop like a rock. Through two starts for him, it's been so far, so good. In his first start, he tossed five shutout innings, striking out four, walking one, and scattering four hits. In his second start, he went six, struck out ten, and allowed two runs (including a solo homer). Since Taillon didn't strike a ton of guys out in Bradenton last year, this is certainly an encouraging start to the season. 

Stolmy Pimentel is off to a good start, too, throwing 12 1/3 shutout innings over his first two starts, striking out 11, walking four, and only giving up seven hits. He's 23 and this is his third go-round at Double-A, so hopefully he'll head to Indianapolis soon and we'll get an idea of what we can do at a higher level. In terms of hitters, Alex Dickerson is off to a decent start with a .268/.318/.463 line with a homer, three doubles, and a triple. Andrew Lambo hit for the cycle last week and is hitting .295/.392/.523 right now. He's been in Double-A since, no joke, 2008 (he only played eight games at the level since 2008, but still), but is somehow only 24 years old, which means that if he goes to Indianapolis soon and hits there, he'll be mildly interesting. 

Bradenton

The Alen Hanson and Gregory Polanco show has pulled into Bradenton, and things aren't off to a great start. The Marauders are 2-10, Hanson's hitting just .191/.224/.255, and he's been benched once for having some terrible games in the field. Polanco's off to a slightly better start, hitting .286/.321/.408. It's certainly early for these guys, though, so I'm not going to worry too much about anything other than the persistant worries about Hanson's defense. 

Zac Fuesser and Zack Von Rosenberg and Nick Kingham are all on Bradenton. We'll probably all feel better if I don't mention their numbers to this point. Robby Rowland, who was acquired for Brett Lorin after the 2011 Rule 5 draft, is off to a pretty nice start so far. There are a few other interesting players here (Willy Garcia, Adrian Sampson), but there aren't any performances worth talking about quite yet. I think that there will be plenty to talk about from this team eventually, it just hasn't happened yet. 

West Virginia

Now here's an intriguing team. In 13 games thus far, Stetson Allie has hit six home runs and four doubles (!!!), driving in 18 runs with his .411/.469/.804 line. Obviously he'll come back to earth at some point and 22 is a little old for Single-A, but he's still clearly got some potential and so maybe the Stetson Allie As A Position Player experiment isn't quite as doomed as it seemed to be last year. Maybe even more encouraging is that Josh Bell is off to a strong start, too, hitting .280/.321/.500 with a homer and eight doubles. Shortstop Dilson Herrera is an on-base machine at .310/.423/.429, with nine walks in 42 plate appearances. Eric Wood, last year's sixth round pick who seemed like a signability pick to save money for Mark Appel, is hitting .318/.348/.614 with three homers. The only news from the offensive side of the plate there that's not great news is that last year's second rounder Wyatt Mathisen is off to a slow start, hitting just .220/.273/.244. Of course, all of the usual small sample caveats apply here since most of these guys have only played 9-13 games. 

The pitching staff here has both Clay Holmes and Tyler Glasnow, who are definitely sleeper prospects to watch this season. They both have solid ERAs and bunch of strikeouts after three and two starts, respectively, but they've both also had some control problems thus far (Holmes much moreso than Glasnow). In any case, West Virginia is where most of the Pirates' "high upside" middle-round draft pick high school pitchers have started their flameouts in past seasons, so it's nice to see both Holmes and Glasnow at least get off to decent starts. They're two guys I'll be monitoring closely as the season progresses. 

The Pirates were hitting the ball well and Jonathan Sanchez didn't look awful, so of course this game got rained out after two innings. I haven't seen a date for the makeup game yet, but I suppose it'll probably be later in the season since the Pirates and Cardinals play each other about a million more times. 

Tomorrow: the WHYGAVS minor league update.