Royals  3    Pirates  5

Kansas City Royals (31-40) at Pittsburgh Pirates (33-39), 7:05 p.m.

Sports Network | June 26, 2009

(Sports Network) - While it probably wasn't easy to trade Nate McLouth, the Pittsburgh Pirates are probably more than happy with the guy who replaced him in center field.

Rookie Andrew McCutchen will try to extend his hitting streak to 14 games tonight as Pittsburgh begins a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals at PNC Park.

It seemed like the same-old Pirates when they shipped McLouth, a 2008 National League All-Star, to the Braves for a trio of prospects, becoming the latest rising star to play his way out of town. However, the move added strength to Pittsburgh's present and future, as McCutchen has slid right into center field and has been worthy of the hype that surrounds the 2005 first-round pick.

McCutchen's 13-game hitting streak is the longest by a rookie in the majors this year and the 22-year-old has a hit in 18 of his first 20 career games. He is batting .330 on the season and singled home Jack Wilson in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift his club to a 3-2 win over Cleveland on Thursday.

McCutchen had two RBI and provided the Pirates with their first walk-off win of the season. Wilson had three hits as Pittsburgh won its second straight following a five-game skid.

"It was almost predestined the way you looked at it," said McCutchen. "Every time I came up to bat it was a key situation and I was able to come through."

Charlie Morton, one of the three players the Pirates got from the Braves for McLouth, was slated to start this contest, but he will now pitch on Sunday to give his ailing hamstring two more days of rest. In his place, Virgil Vasquez makes his 2009 debut. Vasquez takes the spot of Ian Snell in the rotation after the struggling Snell was sent down to Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Vasquez hasn't pitched in the majors since making five appearances, including three starts, with Detroit in 2007. The righty went 0-1 with an 8.64 earned run average that year and was 5-2 with a 4.18 ERA in 14 starts with Indianapolis after just missing out on the fifth spot in Pittsburgh's rotation in the spring.

"He's been throwing the ball very well in Indianapolis, so we're anxious to get him up here and give Charlie another day," manager John Russell told Pittsburgh's Web site.

Gil Meche will try to rediscover his touch tonight for the Royals. The right- hander had gone 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA over six starts before getting lit up by St. Louis for nine runs on nine hits over 3 1/3 innings on Sunday. Meche hadn't allowed a run in each of his previous two starts, a span of 16 innings.

"Pretty much everything that could've happened wrong did," Meche told the Royals' Web site after the game.

Meche's ERA rose almost a full point from 3.31 to 4.11, while his season record dipped to 4-6. The 30-year-old, who has never faced Pittsburgh, has been tough on the road, where he is 3-2 with a 2.20 ERA in seven starts.

The Royals have lost six of their last eight, including Thursday's finale with the Astros by a 5-4 margin. Mark Teahen finished 2-for-4 with two RBI in the setback.

"I thought we played a pretty solid game, took advantage of mistakes [Houston] made," Teahen said. Obviously we didn't bang the ball around like we would have liked to, but we put ourselves in a position to win and it didn't pan out."

Brian Bannister was tagged with the loss after allowing five runs on six hits in six innings of work. He fanned three and walked two.

The Royals have won four straight over Pittsburgh, including a three-game sweep at home when the clubs last met in 2006. Kansas City is visiting PNC Park for the first time since they lost two of three from July 12-14, 2001.