Lincoln, Alvarez help Pirates win 3rd straight

The Pirates used a strong outing from Brad Lincoln and a clutch RBI double from Pedro Alvarez to defeat the Miami Marlins 3-2 in the new Marlins stadium. The win gives the Pirates a 3 game winning streak, their longest of the season so far.

 Despite striking out 3 times, Alvarez hammered a double to the left field gap in the top of the 6th inning to break a 2-2 tie and give the Pirates the lead for good. Joel Hanrahan picked up his 7th save of the year as the Pirates improved to 17-18 on Monday night. Lincoln improved to 3-0 on the campaign, and it's going to be tough to keep him out of the rotation for long.

The Bucs struck first in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly from Andrew McCutchen scoring Jose Tabata, who led the game off with a double. The Marlins wasted no time tying the game at 1-1 on a bomb from Hanley Ramirez in the bottom of the inning. Rod Barajas answered the very next inning with a homer of his own to give the Bucs a 2-1 lead in the 2nd.

 Lincoln would allow an RBI single to Emilio Bonafacio in the 4th to tie the game again, but that would be all the Marlins could muster up. After a McCutchen single in the 6th, Pedro Alvarez gave the Pirates the lead for good with a game-winning RBI double to left center gap. Jason Grilli and Jared Hughes each pitched scoreless innings before the hammer shut the door to give the Bucs their first win in the new stadium. 

Rod Barajas had his first multi-hit game of the year and the Pirates will look to keep their winning streak alive as Kevin Correia will face Josh Johnson in Tuesday's ballgame.