Worth noting

By Tom Singer

July 13, 2013

• In his first three games this week as Pittsburgh's cleanup hitter, Pedro Alvarez hit two home runs -- compared to one in 24 games all last season in the four-hole.

• The 20 relief wins by the Pirates trail only Arizona's 21 among Major League teams. Justin Wilson and Vin Mazzaro each have five of those -- more wins than A.J. Burnett, who took a record of 4-6 into Saturday night's start against New York.

Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog Change for a Nickel. He can also be found on Twitter @Tom_Singer.