Carmen Mlodzinski pounded his fist into his glove as he walked off the mound with two outs in the sixth inning, an auto-response to his best performance as a starting pitcher in the major leagues.
The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander was one out shy of the first career quality start. That he did so against the reigning NL Cy Young winner, Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale, made it even more momentous.
Where Mlodzinski showed that he could pitch deeper into games, the Pirates proved that they rally in the ninth inning when required.
With the bases loaded, Joey Bart drove in the winning run with a grounder to short that scored Adam Frazier and lifted the Pirates to a 4-3 walk-off win Sunday afternoon before 17,845 at PNC Park.
“I had a lot of confidence seeing our offense battle,” said Mlodzinski, who allowed four hits and one walk with two strikeouts. “They scored three runs against a guy who won the Cy Young last year. His stuff was unbelievable today. It was fun watching him go, but it was more fun watching our offense really compete. It just kind of put me in that mindset, just leave it all out there and compete for the team.”
After ending their last homestand by being swept by San Diego under Derek Shelton, who was fired Thursday, the Pirates (14-27) won the three-game series against the Braves under new manager Don Kelly.
“Any win feels awesome,” Kelly said. “To get the series win, especially after yesterday, struggling to score with runners in scoring position and to be able to come through today was a good job by the guys.”
Facing Sale brought out the best in Mlodzinski, who had struggled the second time through the order and allowed a multi-run inning in six of his first seven starts.
“He’s had ups and downs. You see how it’s gone the first two times through the order and then he’s hit a little wall there,” Kelly said. “Today, you didn’t see that. He continued to push. He continued to grind through, and I think that going from relieving to starting, it takes some time. We will see how he continues to progress. Today was great.”
Mlodzinski attacked the Braves with his four-seam fastball and was efficient in throwing 54 of his 83 pitches for strikes, getting 14 called strikes and seven whiffs. Sale (1-4) had eight strikeouts but gave up two earned runs on eight hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“You don’t really compete against the other pitchers but when you watch your team compete against a guy who’s that good, it kind of brings up everybody’s energy in the dugout,” Mlodzinski said. “His stuff was electric, and we battled our (butts) off to score three runs against him. That energy and competitiveness that our lineup brings, I’m just trying to match that. Those guys are giving it all they have against a guy who won the Cy Young last year, who has really good stuff and they’re battling against 98-mph heaters from the lower left side.”
Jared Triolo led off the fifth with a single to center and advanced to second when Braves third baseman Austin Riley couldn’t scoop a Ke’Bryan Hayes dribbler near the mound. The Pirates then executed a double steal, and Triolo scored on a passed ball when Sale’s slider skipped off Drake Baldwin’s glove for a 1-0 lead.
Bryan Reynolds drew a four-pitch walk, putting runners on first and third for Andrew McCutchen, whose sacrifice fly to left scored Hayes for a 2-0 lead. Bart followed with a single to right, driving in Reynolds to give the Pirates a three-run advantage.
It was the first time the Pirates scored three runs in an inning since April 22, a 9-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
“That’s the recipe: pitching, defense, timely hitting,” Kelly said. “We’ve just got to keep it rolling.”
Mlodzinski didn’t issue a walk until he faced Matt Olson in the sixth. After a Marcell Ozuna lineout, Kelly brought in lefty Ryan Borucki to face the lefty-hitting Baldwin, who hit a two-out double in the fourth, and the result was a strikeout to end the frame to keep the Braves scoreless. Borucki tossed two scoreless innings, recording two outs in the eighth.
When the Braves loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on a Riley single, Olson double and Ozuna walk, the Pirates turned to another lefty, Joey Wentz. But right-handed pinch-hitter Sean Murphy smacked a three-run double to the notch to tie the game.
The Pirates hadn’t scored a run in the ninth inning since April 23 — also against the Angels — but Frazier led off the ninth with a pinch-hit single to center, then raced to third on a soft single by Hayes through the right side. McCutchen drew an intentional walk to load the bases. With the Braves infield playing in, Bart hit the fielder’s choice to short, and Frazier beat Allen’s throw to home plate to clinch the celebration.
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“It starts with Frazier coming off the bench, doing that,” Bart said. “That’s one of the hardest things in sports, to come off the bench and get a pinch-hit against a closer. So soon as that got moving, seems like we caught a break on that swing, and those breaks we haven’t really been catching, you know what I mean? Good things happen when you put the ball in play, and that’s what happened there in the ninth.”