The Pirates Have Shown Great Character

Ever since the Pirate Rotation lost AJ Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez to add to Jeanmar Gomez and JMAC who were already on the DL, they have won a series with the Giants at PNC, a series with the Dodgers at PNC, and most importantly, just split a very difficult 4 game series with the Reds on the road. So, 6-4 in their last 10 games with a patchwork Rotation. They have done this with 3 Rookie SP's (Jeff Locke, Brandon Cumpton, and Gerrit Cole) and Charlie Morton just coming back from TJ surgery. How? Our bullpen, although tired, are putting solid performance after solid performance out there on a daily basis. The 5-3 victory today had Cumpton pitching 5 innings, fellow Rookie Bryan Morris going two and Tony Watson in for the 2 inning Save. At bat, Starling Marte is again putting up solid numbers after experiencing a slump, and Pedro Alvarez has been on an extended period of HR's, RBI's, and he has raised his batting average about 25 points to .223. They could have folded, but instead they have done better than expected, and Rodriguez and Burnett will return in the next 3 days.