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Giolito retired 11 consecutive batters at one point during his long-awaited Boston debut before the Blue Jays finally got to him with two outs in the sixth when Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho connected for back-to-back homers. He threw 61 of 90 pitches for strikes, finishing with a robust 33 percent CSW. He displayed some impressive precision and command of his arsenal, leaning heavily on his fastball/changeup combination. He’s worthy of a speculative roster spot in all fantasy formats. He’ll square off against the Rangers on Tuesday in his next outing.

McCutchen got the big hit in this one when he squeaked a ground ball up the middle that Dansby Swanson inadvertently kicked into shallow center field. That mishap allowed both Bryan Reynolds and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to score and give the Pirates a late lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. While McCutchen began the season in more of a part-time role, he’s started in 12 of Pittsburgh’s last 13 games and has slugged his way to an .826 OPS overall.

Bednar has looked like his old self lately. His fastball got up to 99 mph and he was able to command both his splitter and curveball. He’s allowed just one run and five hits to go with eight strikeouts over his last six innings since being recalled from Triple-A. It seems like the Pirates have fully reasserted him as their closer and he’s running with the job.

Mlodzinski just doesn’t have a good enough approach at this point to face a major league lineup for a third time. His fastball doesn’t miss many bats and he’s unwilling to mix his secondary pitches enough against left-handed hitters. So, it winds up being a lot of back-door sweepers against them and then hoping for the best. That’s how one winds up with a 6.58 ERA through six starts. His place in this rotation could become tenuous with some exciting pitching prospects in the Pirates’ system.

Swanson has really struggled out of the gate this season, so it was nice to see him finally hit the ball well. This was his first three-hit game on the campaign and it raised his batting average by nearly 20 points to finally climb back above the Mendoza Line. He still has plenty of work to do though as one of the more disappointing players in the league to this point.

Boyd rode his changeup to a solid start here. The Pirates packed their lineup with eight right-handed batters against the lefty Boyd and he responded by consistently dotting that changeup. It regularly fell down just below the zone and forced plenty of weak swings on pitches that were out of reach. In all, it earned six swings-and-misses and got him out of a few jams. He now has a 2.70 ERA in what was a solid first month of the season. He’s set for a two-start week coming up against the Giants and Mets.