Pirates 3 Phillies 2

It's been a while since we've gotten a start like Ian Snell gave us tonight. He zipped through 7 innings on only 93 pitches, allowing one run on three hits with 6 Ks for his first win since June 10th. Interestingly, the next start he made was the start against Minnesota in which he went head to head against Liriano , outpitching him for six innings before hitting the wall in the 7th and falling apart. Since then his longest outing was 5 and 1/3 innings and counting the start against Minny, he'd lost 3 of his last four starts, so it's nice to see him get back on track. There wasn't much offense tonight, but an RBI double by Bay and a couple of sac flies from Sanchez and Casey did the trick, while Gonzo closed out his first save chance since June 14th vs. St. Louis (the day before the losing streak started) on only 11 pitches. There's really not much else to say about this one, we actually pitched well and accordingly, we won a baseball game. It would be good if that would happen more often. I suppose I could point out how strange it was to let Ian Snell hit in the top of the 7th, then replace him with Marte in the bottom of the inning, but hey, we won. It wouldn't be a Pirates game if Jim Tracy didn't do something insane.