ATLANTA -- Pirates star centerfielder Andrew McCutchen had struggled at the plate in the first three games of this series versus the Braves so he was called into manager Clint Hurdle's office before Thursday's game and the two discussed some strategies to get him back on track.

"Today we had a conversation," Hurdle said in the pregame about his discussion with McCutchen. "And I asked him to go look at some videotape and compare this to that and compare what we saw before compared to now and that's really what we did today. I think he was able to spot a little something that I think might help him.

"I think you'll see a little different approach from [McCutchen] tonight, generally power guys will get a little more rotary with their upper body, I think he has been using his legs a little bit more and the combination of that and im being a little bit too low is making him turn too much so we're going to try and get him up a little bit and load back to front and see where that takes us today."

Whatever works, they say, and that little talk clearly did the trick as McCutchen went out and had three hits, two of which went for extra bases including a home run and he drove in three runs to lead the Pirates to an important 5-2 win over the Braves before a crowd of 38,355 at Turner Field.

Hurdle said McCutchen was probably also due for a day off day soon as fatigue may have been a factor in his struggles, but the way he swung the bat in this game would dictate that perhaps he needs to stay in the lineup for a few more days.

McCutchen's bat, combined with the steady work of starting pitcher Kevin Correia, was enough to due in the Braves but the Pirates also played excellent defense all night and turned huge three double plays to get out of would-be jams.

And perhaps the biggest play of the game came besides McCutchen's home run came courtesy of a most unlikely source -- third baseman Pedro Alvarez, whose struggles in the field have been well documented.

But Alvarez's diving snag of a hard grounder between second and third by pinch hitter Chipper Jones which began a 5-4-3 double play in the bottom of the 7th -- with the Pirates leading only 3-2 -- is a play that will make end-of-the-season highlight tapes as one of the most important of the year.

Had Alvarez not fielded that ball, and he had missed two similar balls earlier in the series, the Braves would have had runners at first and third with only one out and may have been able to ti the game.

The Pirates had scored first in the first three games of this series, but this time it was the Braves who jumped out to an early lead.

Nate McLouth led off the bottom of the first inning and moved to third on a single by Freddie Freeman, then scored the first run of the game on a ground rule double by David Ross.

But the Pirates came right back in the top of the second and tied the game when Correia singled and drove in Pirates first baseman Lyle Overbay.

The Pirates then finally cracked Lowe, who labored every inning and needed some good fortune on a couple of line drives to get out of hames, for good in the top of the fifth inning.

Xavier Paul and Garrett Jones began the inning with consecutive singles which gave the Pirates runners at first and third with nobody out.

McCutchen doubled to deep leftfield, which scored Paul and pushed Jones to third, then Pedro Alvarez grounded out to first which knocked in Jones and gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead.

The Braves seemed to hit Correia, who went 6 1/3 innings, gave up nine hits and two earned runs, hard at least once in every inning but couldn't capitalize on him nor could they string enough hits together to score runs.

Freeman, however, has been a real pain in the Pirates side all week and once again he got a rally started with a double to deep leftfield.

Dan Uggla then hit a slow grounder up the middle that Pirates shortstop Ronny Cedeno fielded cleanly moving towards second base. But Cedeno had to rush his throw and he threw it in the dirt and it bounced past Overbay.

Freeman, who was 10-for-19 in the series, scored on the overthrow but Uggla took too wide of a turn and as a result had to return to first.

That was significant because the next hitter, Eric Hinske, bounced into a double play and then Correia got Ross to fly out to centerfield for the final out of the inning.

Correia (12-8) got the win and it was his tenth road win of the year (10-2), which makes him the first Pirates pitcher to have more than nine road wins in the same seasons since John Smiley in 1991.

Lowe (6-9) took the loss and that snapped his 10-game winning streak against the Pirates as he entered the game with a 10-0 record against Pittsburgh. He was one of only two pitchers in the Major Leagues with a perfect record against an opponent who had at least ten starts against that opponent.

Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan entered the game with two outs in the bottom of the 8th and got the last four outs to record his 30th save of the season.

The Pirates (54-49) next move on to a key three-game series with National League East leader Philadelphia while the Braves (61-45) will play host to the Marlins for a three-game weekend series.