The Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals sent two pitchers to the mound Friday that have had similar performances, at least in terms of ERA, over the past few starts. Jeff Locke oppposed All-Star right-hander Max Scherzer, who no-hit the Pirates last time he saw them.

However, the Pirates would not be no-hit on this night. Pedro Alvarez quieted some haters and exercised some demons by blasting a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning off of Scherzer to put the Pirates up 2-0 early, his 14th homer of the year.

Jeff Locke started off the game really well on the mound for the Pirates, but his first hit allowed in the game would be an RBI single from Wilson Ramos to cut the Pirates lead to 2-1 in the fourth inning. Later on in the inning, Tyler Moore doubled for his 10th of the season, and put the Nationals up 3-2 on the Pirates. Dan Uggla then made it 4-2 Nationals by singling on a pop-up to score Ian Desmond.

The Pirates would respond, however, by battling Scherzer hard in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jaff Decker had a very long at-bat against Scherzer that eventually led to a walk. Gregory Polanco then came to the plate to face Scherzer. Polanco battled long and hard and on the 12th pitch of his at-bat against Scherzer, he blasted a two-run bomb to right center field to tie the game at four. Neil Walker would follow that up with a solo shot of his own off of Scherzer, giving the Pirates a 5-4 lead.

The Nationals would quickly respond, this time on an Ian Desmond homer that was absolutely crushed off of Pirates right-handed reliever Vance Worley. The homer was Desmond's 10th of the year and tied the game at five runs apiece in the top of the sixth inning.

The Pirates would take the lead right back in the bottom of the sixth on a Brent Morel double that plated Francisco Cervelli to put the Pirates ahead 6-5. Morel would then be driven in by Gregory Polanco on a single to put the Pirates up 7-5.

Mark Melancon came on in the ninth to try and shut the door on the Nationals for the night. Emmanuel Burriss would get on thanks to a miscue by Melancon but he may have beaten the throw anyways had it been on the mark. Melancon would get the next batter to ground into a double play. Melancon would earn his 31st save of the season and the Pirates went on to win 7-5.

ANALYSIS: The Pirates scored seven runs for the second straight night, putting their rough start to the second half behind them. The Pirates have already earned a split in their four-game set with the Nationals and can take the series with a win on Saturday night. For the Pirates, this victory was a team win for sure. Jeff Locke pitched great until the fourth inning when he allowed some walks and the wheels fell off for him. However, the Pirates offense picked up the slack and were able to power past the Nats.

The Pirates success may have had something to do with the fact this was their second time seeing Scherzer. Many times the Pirates have faced rookies that they have not seen before and struggled and no one seems to understand why. Though Scherzer is no rookie, the Pirates did see him for the first time this season in the first meeting when Scherzer no-hit the Bucs. However, the Pirates hunted fastballs and were aggressive on Friday night and it paid off as they hit three homers off of the Nationals' ace and put five runs up against him.

BIG PICTURE: With the Pirates win they are still six games behind the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals as they finished off the Atlanta Braves tonight. 

The Pirates offense has been streaky and at times very inconsistent, but Thursday and Friday's games were a display of what the Pirates can do when they are seeing the ball well. Putting up 14 runs in their past two games is huge for an offense that struggled so badly over the weekend and for most of their series in Kansas City. With Aramis Ramirez scheduled to be in Pittsburgh and in the lineup for Saturday's game, he could provide even more offense and keep the ball rolling. Also, Gregory Polanco has to be given tons of credit for the win on Friday as he led the way for the Pirates offensively, going 2-for-4 with three RBI's and a home run.