The Pittsburgh Pirates have struggled in 2015 at Great American Ballpark. On Sunday, the Pirates went up against the Reds hoping to take a series split. The Pirates sent Charlie Morton to the mound, and his opponent was Keyvius Sampson, who was making his first Big League start.

Morton was great on the mound for the Pirates, pitching seven scoreless innings and scattering just five hits in the process. Morton threw 93 pitches, and 68 percent of those pitches were thrown for strikes. He had seven strikeouts in his seven innings of work and no walks.

The Pirates jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Starling Marte, who struck out with the bases loaded on Saturday night, albeit against Aroldis Chapman, was able to deliver his 19th double of the year and drive in both Sean Rodriguez and Gregory Polanco. Marte collected his 55th and 56th RBI's of the year on the double.

The Pirates would quickly get back on the board after the Marte double. This time, second baseman Neil Walker homered off of Sampson and made the score 3-0. It was originally ruled a triple on the field until the umpires reviewed the play and overturned the call on the field. The home run was Walker's 10th of the year.

Things would get very interesting in this one as the Pirates and Reds continued a civil war of sorts. On Saturday night, Marlon Byrd was beaned, and he took some exception to it.

Things would not stop there as the Reds would drill Andrew McCutchen in the top of the eighth inning of this one. Tony Watson of the Pirates would then drill Brandon Phillips in the bottom of eighth, and the benches cleared. Things got heated, and teams would not leave the field easily as many players got into altercations and almost fisticuffs.

Both teams were at fault in this one because they were both wrong. The Pirates have every right to be upset as to when the Reds hit their guy. They could have done it Saturday but did not. However, Rodriguez and Francisco Cervelli kept some jawing going, and that almost led to fisticuffs, but it ended up just being scuffles. Byrd and Joey Votto were shouting at times for the Reds as well, but things just got heated.

Rodriguez, in that situation, however, needs to be careful because the Pirates have injuries already, and they cannot afford to have someone get hurt from fighting.

Watson would pitch a scoreless eighth inning for the Pirates, and the game would remain 3-0 heading to the ninth inning. The Pirates would not score, and the Reds had one last chance to push some runs across and tie the game. The Pirates would call upon Mark Melancon to come on in the ninth and get the save.

Melancon would give up a Jay Bruce double and eventually hit a batter, obviously not on purpose because it makes no sense to put the tying run at the plate intentionally, and he was ejected. Joakim Soria came in for the final two outs to record his first save with the Pirates.

ANALYSIS: This game was one of those games in which the Pirates brought it all together as a team to win it. On Saturday night, they put themselves in a good position to come back against one of the best closers in all of baseball but came up a hit short of doing so. On Sunday, the Pirates enjoyed a solid outing from Morton, which was one of his best all year, and they picked up their guy with a little bit of offense. The bullpen was able to help out and hold down the fort to back their starter even after Melancon was ejected from the game.

BIG PICTURE: The Pirates' win on Sunday is their 61st of the season and puts them back to 18 games over .500. They will not lose any ground on the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals also won Sunday, so the Pirates remain 5.5 games behind theRed Birds.