The LaRoche brothers experienced, in the span of a few hours last night at PNC Park, the extremes of what makes baseball the perfect game in the eyes of so many.

For Adam, he of the elegant if erratic swing, the Pirates' 10-6 clobbering of the Cleveland Indians was nearly pristine for a cleanup man: He homered, went 3 for 4, had three RBIs, even stole a base.

For Andy ...

"Glad it's over," he said.

The Pirates had led, 10-1, entering the ninth inning, and fresh reliever Steven Jackson quickly got two outs. Which meant the Indians needed nine runs with one out to give to force extra innings.

Seemed a little unlikely.

"That's the beautiful thing about this game, though," right fielder Brandon Moss said. "It's never over."

Beautiful probably is not the adjective Jackson and Andy LaRoche would choose for what followed ...

Josh Barfield's grounder to LaRoche, which should have ended the game, skipped off his glove for what generously was scored a single.

Big deal, right?

Next batter, Kelly Shoppach, crushed a pitch into the bleachers.

It was 10-3. So what?

Ryan Garko's bouncer to LaRoche leaped up off the dirt and caromed off his chest. An error was charged this time.

Jamey Carroll rolled a ball to LaRoche, whose throw sailed wide of first. Another error.

Grady Sizemore lifted a ball over the Clemente Wall for a three-run home run, and the deficit was 10-6.

Uh-oh?

"Just a tough inning," LaRoche said. "The one was a bad hop, and the rest ..."

After a walk put the tying run one batter away from the on-deck circle and an epic collapse loomed, Pirates manager John Russell replaced Jackson with Sean Burnett, to the clear delight of the 20,162 on hand.

Burnett took three pitches to get Shin-soo Choo to ground out to shortstop Jack Wilson.

"Last out's the toughest, I guess," Burnett said. "I just went right at him."

With that palpable exhale, the Pirates ended a five-game losing streak and validated Zach Duke's six solid innings -- one run, five hits -- as well as 14 hits by a suddenly revitalized offense.

And it is likely that no one felt greater relief, despite Andy LaRoche's late travails, than Adam, who had flied out with bases loaded in the ninth inning of the 5-4 loss the previous night.

Or not.

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Today

• Game: Pirates vs. Cleveland Indians, 7:05 p.m., PNC Park.

• TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).

• Pitching: RHP Ross Ohlendorf (6-6, 4.94) vs. LHP Cliff Lee (4-6, 2.94).

• Key matchup: The Pirates, for no logical reason, fare well against some of Major League Baseball's best pitchers, and Lee is a reigning Cy Young winner. Top pitchers on the Pirates' victory list this summer: Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Carlos Zambrano, Roy Oswalt, Jair Jurrjens, Wandy Rodriguez, Johnny Cueto and Mark Buehrle.

• Of note: Shortstop Jack Wilson has turned 810 double plays, second in franchise history to Dick Groat's 877.

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"No," Adam replied when asked about his relief. "I mean, shoot, I showed up today and completely forgot about that. You dwell on those situations too long, and it ends up ruining your next eight or 10 at-bats."

As for his brother ...

"If Andy's going to do it, he picked a good time to do it," Adam said. "It's never fun to kick a couple balls. I'll try to lighten things up a little for him."

Adam LaRoche is not the quintessential cleanup man, in that he strikes out too much and has a .228 average with runners in scoring position. He does have a team-high 36 RBIs, but that total surely should be much higher for all his chances.

And yet, he looked plenty comfortable last night ...

First at-bat, he singled up the middle, an early sign that he had shaken off the previous night.

Next at-bat, a flashback: He struck out looking with two aboard.

Third at-bat, his two-out, two-run laser into left-center provided the body blow, bringing the Pirates a 5-1 lead in the fourth and the big hit they lacked while pecking away at Cleveland starter Carl Pavano. LaRoche went on to steal second and score on an aggressive run on Andy's single.

Fourth at-bat, he led off by lasering a Tony Sipp fastball beyond the visitors' bullpen beyond center, his team-high 11th home run.

"He just destroyed that ball," Moss said. "Looked like a lineout to center, and it just kept going."

Overall, LaRoche is batting .267, but his recent numbers are more in line with his annual second-half tear: Since May 25, he is batting .353 with four home runs and 16 RBIs in 25 games.

"He's starting to get some big hits for us and driving the ball," Russell said. "That's what he's capable of. He's a big part of our offense, obviously."

The key was the Pirates' fourth, into which they carried a 3-1 lead: Nyjer Morgan's single was followed by Cleveland shortstop Luis Valbuena's throwing error that allowed Freddy Sanchez to reach. The LaRoches' singles brought three more runs and, finally, came the first extra-base hits: Moss' RBI double chased Pavano, and Jason Jaramillo welcomed reliever Jensen Lewis by lifting his fastball above the Clemente Wall railing, his second home run.

Call it the feast mode: The Pirates now have scored seven or more runs 22 times, despite an offense that is ordinary by most measures, well below that in terms of power.

McCutchen's 1-for-4 day extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and his two RBIs gave him 16 in just 19 games, all out of the leadoff spot.