Field Level Media
Jun 5, 2022
Cal Mitchell slugged his first career homer and Zach Thompson combined with four relievers for a five-hit shutout Sunday as the Pittsburgh Pirates dispatched the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 3-0.
Thompson (3-4) threw five scoreless innings, giving up four hits and no walks, with four strikeouts.
Wil Crowe, Anthony Banda, Chris Stratton and David Bednar followed with an inning of relief each. Bednar pitched the ninth for his 10th save.
The Pirates, who scored a run in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, took two of three in the weekend series.
Ke'Bryan Hayes added an RBI single for the Pirates, who were coming off a sweep of the Dodgers last week in Los Angeles and have won five of six.
Arizona starter Zac Gallen (4-1) allowed two runs and five hits in six innings, with four strikeouts and three walks.
The Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte had his 16-game hitting streak, the longest active such streak in the major leagues, halted. He was 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
The Pirates threatened in the third. They loaded the bases on a walk to Tucupita Marcano, a bunt single by Tyler Heineman and a line-drive base hit to center by Mitchell. That brought up the top of the lineup, but Gallen struck out Hayes and Bryan Reynolds and got Daniel Vogelbach to ground out to first.
In the fifth, Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead when Mitchell led off with his first career homer. It was just the fourth homer allowed by Gallen in 10 starts.
The Pirates added to that in the sixth. Jack Suwinski hit a one-out double to right and stole third. He came home on Diego Castillo's sacrifice fly that was nearly a homer to deep center to make it 2-0.
Against reliever Kyle Nelson in the seventh, Heineman led off for the Pirates with a double to left. He moved to third on Mitchell's groundout to first, and scored when Hayes' flare to center dropped in for a single.
--Field Level Media