Bullpen provides boost as Pirates win 4th consecutive

The Pittsburgh Pirates asked Chris Stratton to do something he hasn’t done in more than three years by starting against the Miami Marlins.

After 161 consecutive relief appearances, the veteran right-hander retired the first six batters he faced by directing traffic to center field. Jake Marisnick did the rest, recording five consecutive putouts before hitting a home run for an early lead.

A bullpen start was bolstered by back-to-back RBIs from the bottom of the order in the fifth inning and a strong finish to push the Pirates past the Marlins, 3-2, on Tuesday night at loanDepot park.

“It’s different, but he comes to work every day ready to go,” Pirates All-Star closer David Bednar said of Stratton, “so it’s no surprise that he came out and shoved.”

It was the fourth consecutive win for the Pirates, their longest winning streak since Sept. 24-27, 2019, when they followed a three-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs with a win over the Cincinnati Reds.

Oneil Cruz drove in a run with a triple, and Jason Delay provided the winning run with a single to score Cruz for a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning.

That provided enough cushion for Dillon Peters, Tyler Beede, Wil Crowe and Bednar, who combined to allow five hits without a walk while striking out seven. Peters (5-2) got the win, which was the 27th by a Pirates reliever this season. That’s tied with the New York Yankees for most in the majors.

“You have to get execution out of all of your guys, and we did that,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Everybody kind of did their part.”

Stratton made his first start since April 23, 2019, when he pitched for the Los Angeles Angels in a 7-5 loss to the New York Yankees. After moving to the bullpen, Stratton was acquired by the Pirates the next month. He allowed one run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings Tuesday.

Marisnick made five consecutive putouts in center in the first and second innings and homered to lead off the third.

It was the second consecutive game with a home run for Marisnick, who hit Daniel Castano’s cutter 397 feet to left field. Marisnick had a two-run homer in the 5-1 win over the Marlins on Monday, when he was activated from the 60-day injured list after recovering from left thumb surgery.

“If they hit the ball to Jake Marisnick all the time I think we’re in pretty good shape. He got really good reads and really good jumps,” said Shelton, who then dropped a Bad News Bears reference. “I told (first base coach) Tarrik (Brock) that our other outfielders need to think he’s like Kelly Leak out there and go catch everything.”

A nine-pitch first inning got Stratton off to a strong start, and he was perfect through the first two innings before Brian Anderson started the third with a single to center. After getting Miguel Rojas to fly out to right, Stratton gave up a double to Nick Fortes to right field.

Diego Castillo perfectly played the carom off the wall to hold Anderson at third, but the Pirates pulled Stratton after 31 pitches for the left-handed Peters, who returned from the 15-day IL.

Peters gave up a sacrifice fly to Joey Wendle that scored Anderson to tie the score 1-1.

“That we were able to push him into that third inning was really important for us,” Shelton said of Stratton. “He hadn’t gone three ups in awhile, if at all this year. The fact that he was efficient early was really important.”

The Pirates scored two in the fifth, when Cruz tripled to the right-field corner to score Castillo for a 2-1 lead and Delay followed with a single to score Cruz to make it 3-1.

The Marlins answered when Rojas reached on a fielder’s choice, then took advantage of Peters’ delivery to steal second base and score on a hit-and-run single by Fortes that cut the deficit to 3-2.

Peters allowed one run on two hits while striking out three in 2 1/3 innings, then Beede struck out the first two batters he faced in a pair of perfect innings.

That brought the Pirates to the back end of the bullpen. After Crowe produced a 1-2-3 eighth, Bednar got Jon Berti to pop out in foul territory and Avisail Garcia to fly out to right before Jesus Aguilar singled to right to put the tying run on base.

Luke Williams pinch-ran for Aguilar and stole second to move into scoring position for Bryan De La Cruz, but Bednar struck him out with a high fastball to earn his 16th save.

“I don’t think we could have scripted it any better,” Shelton said, “and it all started with Stratton.”