The Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to Miami, Florida late Sunday night after beating the San Francisco Giants in the final game of their four-game home series with the defending World Series champions. The Pirates and Marlins went up against one another, and it started with game one on Monday night. The Pirates sent starter J.A. Happ to the mound to oppose the Marlins starter, Tom Koehler.

Both pitchers were good on Monday, as both would record quality starts for their team. However, Happ has made the Pirates very happy that they traded for him. Happ once again pitched six scoreless frames of work for the Pirates on Monday. In those six innings, he scattered just four hits and struck out six batters in the process.

The Pirates would not wait long to jump on the Marlins, as Andrew McCutchen would drive in both Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte with his 30th double of the season that put the Pirates up 2-0 in the top of the third inning.

The Pirates would add an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning, this run coming off the bat of Neil Walker. Walker drove in Starling Marte on a sacrifice fly to put the Bucs up 3-0 on the Fish.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Marlins would finally find a way to get on the board against the Pirates. J.T. Realmuto would ground out sharply to Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang and score Marcell Ozuna to cut the Pirates lead to 3-1.

The Pirates would add an insurance run thanks to Gregory Polanco when he delivered a single to score Sean Rodriguez and put the Pirates lead back up to three runs. The Pirates now led the Marlins by a score of 4-1.

The Pirates would add another insurance run, which would be their fifth and final run of the game, on a bases loaded walk by shortstop Jordy Mercer that would bring home Jung Ho Kang. The Pirates led the Marlins 5-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Marlins would put up a little bit of a fight in the ninth, as they plated a run thanks to a J.T. Realmuto groundball that turned into a force out at second base after review. The grounder scored Marcell Ozuna to cut the lead to 5-2 Pirates. Mark Melancon would eventually shut the door on the Marlins night and earn his Major-League leading 40th save of the season.

ANALYSIS: The Pirates clicked on all cylinders on Monday night yet again, and were able to cruise to victory. Granted Miami is in a down year, the Pirates are taking care of business at a time when they need to thanks to their schedule. Gregory Polanco, who has been hot of late, was 4-for-5 with an RBI in Monday's contest. Polanco is now batting .267 on the year and has seen his batting average trend upward in the past couple of months due to some improved play. The Pirates also have to tip their cap in this one to J.A. Happ, who has been stellar as of late, granted he's gone up against some less than stellar teams. Nonetheless, Happ has an ERA of just 0.47 in his last three starts and has given up just one earned run in 19 innings. The Pirates are 3-0 in those three starts from Happ. Neal Huntington is sitting back smiling from cheek to cheek right now because Happ has been great filling in A.J. Burnett's shoes as of late.

BIG PICTURE: The Pirates helped their own cause as they were able to win, as did the Chicago Cubs on Monday. Regardless of how the St. Louis Cardinals' first game of their series with the Arizona Diamondbacks finishes, the Pirates will be 3.5 games behind the Red Birds at the worst. It should also be noted that this is the first time since Clint Hurdle joined Neal Huntington in Pittsburgh that the Pirates are 27 games over .500. The Pirates have gotten two of their three injured guys back off of the disabled list while St. Louis is still battling many injuries that they have somehow still been able to overcome thus far. But considering the Diamondbacks score pretty well and the Cardinals struggle to score at times, this may be the week that the Pirates make things very close and too close for comfort for the Cardinals in the National League Central division race.