PITTSBURGH — After winning in four straight blowouts, the Pirates continued their victorious ways Tuesday evening, besting the Cardinals in a 1-0 pitchers' duel at PNC Park. Right-handed reliever Isaac Mattson earned the win, improving to 2-0 on the year. Phil Maton suffered the loss, falling to 1-3. David Bednar earned the save, his 12th of the season.
Coming off perhaps his worst outing as a big leaguer, Paul Skenes silenced a club that has routinely given him fits throughout his career, giving the Pirates five scoreless innings on the mound. However, after plating seven or more runs in each of its past four games, Don KellyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ offense fell quiet.
Cardinals’ starter Andre Pallante was both efficient and dominant, needing 94 pitches to throw seven scoreless innings. Pallante allowed just one hit and a pair of walks throughout his outing. Andrew McCutchen was responsible for all of that production.
The Pirates bullpen matched PallanteÃÛèÖÊÓƵ pace, getting a scoreless sixth and seventh inning from Caleb Ferguson, and then a scoreless eighth frame from Mattson. Their efforts were rewarded in the bottom half of the eighth inning, when the offense pounced on the Cardinals’ bullpen.
Ke’Bryan Hayes welcomed Maton into the ballgame with a leadoff single to right field in the bottom of the eighth. Adam Frazier followed with a clutch, pinch-hit book-rule double to right field, putting two runners in scoring position with no outs. Henry Davis made the most of the big scoring opportunity, bringing home Hayes on a sacrifice fly to plate the gameÃÛèÖÊÓƵ first run. That run would be all that was needed to extend the Pirates’ win streak to five games, a season high.
Bednar made things interesting in the ninth, allowing a pair of runners to advance into scoring position. But when push came to shove, the Pirates’ defense made the plays needed to secure the win.
The defensive effort was highlighted by a key play from Spencer Horwitz, who with one out and Jose Fermin breaking for home, cleanly fielded a hopper down the first base line before delivering a strike to Davis to beat the runner to the plate. Bednar finished the job the next at-bat, getting Brendan Donovan to watch a curveball for a called third strike.
The shutout win marked the Pirates’ second in as many days and ninth of the season.
It was over when ...
Davis brought home Hayes with a sacrifice fly. While the Pirates’ backstop was certainly in an advantageous spot, batting with two runners in scoring position and no outs, plenty of Pirates hitters have failed to come through in similar situations this year. Davis got the job done, and his efforts were enough to lift his team to victory.
On the mound
Skenes was solid, but a lack of efficiency cost him a deeper outing. The Cardinals did a solid job at taking the Pirates’ ace in deep counts, thus leading to his exit after five innings of work.
Those five innings, however, were productive. Skenes allowed five hits and a walk while striking out five batters over 88 pitches. His scoreless effort was also aided by a few nice defensive efforts.
The first came on an inning-ending double play on a line drive caught by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, to escape a runners-on-the-corners, one out jam. The second came an inning later, when a solid throw home from Tommy Pham in left field gunned down Garrett Hampson at home plate to end the top of the fifth.
At the plate
The Pirates tallied just four hits Tuesday evening, with three of them coming in their final trip to the plate. No player delivered a multi-hit effort, although McCutchen reached base in three of his four plate appearances. Strong pitching was enough to overcome their quiet night at the dish.
Most valuable player
Davis, who drove home the gameÃÛèÖÊÓƵ only run and then made a key tag in the top of the ninth.
Up next
The Pirates will go for the sweep as they conclude their series against the Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon. Mitch Keller (2-10, 3.90) will face Sonny Gray (8-2, 3.36) on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35 p.m.
