Four Pirates homered in this one – Chris Snyder, Andrew McCutchen, Lyle Overbay and Ronny Cedeno.

McCutchen is on pace for the most home runs of his career despite a slow start. He’s hitting a homer about once every 24 plate appearances as compared to once every 41 or so over his first few seasons. He’ll be overshadowed by Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson this year, but people in Pittsburgh will start to notice his power stroke soon enough. At his current pace, he’ll crack 20 homers for the first time in his career and unless he slows down he may approach or even crack 30 as well. As for that slow start, he’s hitting .303/.377/.566 since April 29. He’s also swiped six bags and been caught only once after going 3-for-6 before that date.

Any game in which Ronny Cedeno hits a three-run homer is a game the Pirates have to win.

Speaking of Cedeno, he’s been on a tear lately as well. After his 1-for-4 with a homer night tonight, his May line is up to .301/.372/.438. Those are great numbers for a SS, and while I don’t expect him to maintain them, it’s encouraging that he’s managed to draw 11 walks this month while striking out only 15 times. Cedeno has been a free for his entire career, and if he could learn some plate discipline and get on base more he may actually be an above-average shortstop.

The Bucs handled this one easily. Jeff Karstens was cruising, allowing only three hits and a run through his six innings of work, striking out four, walking nobody, and taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. For some reason, a lot of fans want Brad Lincoln called up and Karstens taken out of the rotation. While I’m not opposed to the idea of Lincoln getting a chance in the Majors, I think Karstens has earned his stay in the rotation for a while as he’s sporting a 3-2 record and a 3.62 ERA. He has his problems going deep into games, but so do most fifth starters. Let him stay in the rotation until he either proves he can’t or Lincoln proves he’s too good to keep in AAA. Right now, neither thing is happening.

Neil Walker turned on beast mode in this one, collecting two hits which both went for extra bases – a double and a homer. He collected five RBIs on the day and six total bases hitting from the cleanup spot.

Andrew McCutchen had a hit, a walk, and a steal, and looks to be turning it on at the plate lately after a somewhat disappointing start batting average wise.

Ronny Cedeno continued his hot streak with a hit and a steal. He even threw in a walk for good measure. Actually, Cedeno has been walking much more recently than he normally does. Tonight’s game brings his triple-slash to an unreal .322/.435/.458 since April 29. I know this probably won’t last, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it while it does.

Garrett Jones had a single, a double and a walk, knocking in two runs.

Jose Tabata had two hits, two walks and three runs scored. Hopefully this is a sign of him breaking out of his slump.

Even Lyle Overbay got in on the act, hitting a solo homer in the sixth inning.

It’s great to see a strong performance from this team as we open interleague play, as this is usually the point in the season when the team falls off a cliff that they can never climb back up.

The only complaints I can possibly have about this game are that Pedro Alvarez was on the bench for Brandon Wood (an emerging trend that I’m not at all a fan of – especially when Alvarez homered last night.) and that I had Tabata on the bench in my fantasy league. The Bucs are now playing .500 ball in blowouts. This is, again, a significant improvement over their 2010 record of 11-39 in such games.

After this game, the Pirates record in blowouts (defined as a margin of victory or defeat of 5 runs or more) in 2011 stands at 4-5. And this one was a big one.

Not only did this blowout stop a 6-game losing streak, but Pedro Alvarez opened up the scoring with a 3-run homer. It looks like he may be putting it together at the plate, as he’s hit pretty well in the last three games he’s played. That’s obviously incredibly important, as if there’s one hitter the Pirates can’t afford to miss on it’s Alvarez.

Also on the homers-by-struggling-players list was Andrew McCutchen, who hit his eighth of the year. For all the criticisms of McCutchen this year – namely that he’s not stealing much, he’s not getting on like he usually does, etc. he is seeming to find his power stroke this year. He’s on pace for over 25 home runs, which would be a first in his young career. If he can hit for that type of power and get on base at his normal rate he could be even more dangerous than he already is.

In addition, the Pirates got a great performance out of Charlie Morton as he pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out five. Morton has really looked like the pitcher his stuff says he can be this year, pitching dominant ball. He’s been seeing a decrease in his walks lately as well, aside from a May 1 start where he walked five. It looks like he’s really settling in to his new pitching style.

One more blowout victory, and the Bucs can be at .500 in blowouts this year. That’s not bad, considering they were a horrible 11-39 (.220) in such games last season.

The Pirates have four players in their everyday lineup – Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Jose Tabata – who are either rookies or in their second year of Major League baseball. All of them are young players, Walker being the oldest at 24. It would be easy to point to this fact and say “that’s why we have so many fundamental mistakes. There are so many young players.”

This all came to a head for me today when I was listening to Rocco DeMaro’s post-game show Extra Innings, and Greg Brown said he thought the team should get a veteran like Cincinnati did with Scott Rolen, and talking about how in Texas they have a lot of young players and he had heard a story about how they all listen to Michael Young because of his experience. He then dismissed the previous signings of guys like Doug Mientkiewicz and Eric Hinske (and presumably Ryan Church this year) because none of them were starters.

There’s probably some truth to the fact that young players tend to listen to what veterans have to say when it comes to playing the game. Speaking personally, if I were a rookie I would soak up every bit of information I could from veterans.

The problem is, it’s not the young players that keep making the mistakes, it’s the team’s veterans! While guys like Pedro Alvarez have made a few physical mistakes such as striking out way too often, I can’t recall seeing any of the four players I named above make a mental mistake this season. That’s come from the team’s vets.

Ryan Doumit has made mistake after mistake this season, both physical and mental. He’s been a big leaguer since 2005, yet he almost cost the Pirates a game because he tried to tag up from second with one out as the go-ahead run, and then he didn’t even slide when he ran home.

Lastings Milledge may only be 25 years old, but remember that he was once considered to be the next big thing in baseball and came up at a young age. He’s been in the Majors since 2006, only a year less than Doumit. His baserunning errors and misjudgement in the outfield both when running routes and when deciding whether or not to dive have reached nearly legendary status in Pittsburgh.

Ronny Cedeno and Bobby Crosby are both experienced shortstops, with Cedeno having been in the Majors since 2005 and Crosby since 2003. Despite a strong defensive showing, Cedeno made so many gaffes at the plate and on the bases that he’s effectively been benched in favor of Crosby, and Crosby has responded by playing even worse, collecting seven errors in his fifteen games at short.

This team doesn’t need any veteran leadership, it needs to play like its rookies have.