Worth noting

• James McDonald, on the DL since early May with shoulder discomfort, is scheduled to begin throwing off the mound with a side session Monday.

• By raising his record to 12-4 and lowering his ERA to 2.02 Saturday night, Francisco Liriano became the third Pirates pitcher and first left-hander since 1912, the first year the National League began logging ERAs, to open a season with at least a dozen wins and an ERA below 2.25 through 16 starts.

Rip Sewell (12-2, 2.22) in 1943 and Dock Ellis (12-3, 2.24) in '71 also reached those plateaus.

• In Saturday night's 5-2 victory, Pirates pitching held the opposition to two or fewer runs for the 49th time in 110 games, or 44 percent of the time.

• The Pittsburgh bullpen, aka The Shark Tank, was not impressed that the Discovery Channel's Shark Week began Sunday.

"Here, every week is Shark Week," noted Bryan Morris. "Although Jason Grilli did order us to DVR the whole thing."