The Pittsburgh Pirates have found signs of relief in a balanced bullpen where confidence is contagious, especially after five pitchers combined to throw six shutout innings to spark another comeback victory.

Wil Crowe, Dillon Peters, Heath Hembree, David Bednar and Chris Stratton were dominant in the 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night at Wrigley Field, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out 10 of the 20 batters they faced.

“Anybody that gets a call down there, everybody is pulling for him and is fired up,” Bednar said. “Everybody knows that anybody is capable of getting it done. Like you saw, start with Crowe and all the way through Strat, everybody threw strikes, and everybody got after it. When you do that, good things happen.”

Better yet, rare things happen.

Per StatsInc, the Pirates became the first team with six-plus shutout innings with one hit or fewer, one walk or fewer and 10-plus strikeouts in relief in 21 years. Even that comes with a caveat, as the previous performance was by a Hall of Fame starter. Arizona’s Randy Johnson fanned 16 batters in seven innings in relief of Curt Schilling to complete a suspended game for a 3-0 win in San Diego on July 19, 2001.

No wonder Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it “outstanding.”

“I think it’s a credit to our guys because they’ve really embraced pitching in different roles coming into the game,” Shelton said. “It was a really good outing.”

This was a group effort by the Pirates, thanks to an unorthodox approach and the creativity of Shelton, pitching coach Oscar Marin and bullpen coach Justin Meccage to take advantage of the expanded 28-man roster in the opening month.

No one has thrived more than a pair of former starters, right-hander Wil Crowe and lefty Dillon Peters.

Crowe struck out five batters in 2 1/3 innings, attacking hitters with a five-pitch repertoire that leaned on his changeup mixed with a four-seam fastball, slider, sinker and curveball.

Crowe hasn’t allowed a run in 12 innings over five appearances, a scoreless streak that is tied with Los Angeles Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin for the second-longest active streak in the majors behind Miami’s Pablo Lopez (12 1/3). Only Boston’s Bunny Hearn (1926) and the Dodgers’ Brock Stewart (2017) went longer, with six innings apiece.

“I’m just trying to be aggressive and attack guys,” Crowe said. “The way I’m going about things is just get the ball and go, get the ball and go. It’s working for me because I’m able to be aggressive and throw my stuff the way I want to.”

Peters relieved Crowe and got the final two batters out in the sixth to extend his hitless streak to 25 batters. He is the only reliever in baseball to toss seven innings without a hit and one of three in the National League to throw at least 7 2/3 innings without a run this season.

“Our bullpen’s lights out right now,” Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “You see Crowe. He’s out there dominating. We bring Peters in, and he did the same thing. It was great.”

Opposing hitters are 0 for 21 against Peters, with six strikeouts and four walks. Shelton credited both his preparation and pitch execution for the use of his changeup, breaking ball and fastball to both sides of the plate.

“It’s been impressive, watching him develop a routine down there in the ‘pen,” Bednar said of Peters, who starts stretching and getting loose in the third or fourth inning every game. “To be able to throw every single day is definitely an adjustment, but he’s handling it incredibly well. It’s been a lot of fun to watch him go out and shove.”

Since the All-Star break last July, Bednar has an 0.85 ERA in 31 2/3 innings over 27 appearances, the second lowest among relief pitchers with at least 30 innings in the majors (behind Los Angeles Angels lefty Aaron Loup’s 0.25 ERA in 34 innings).

Peters called the performances of Crowe and Bednar “elite,” especially with the way they throw pitches — and get misses — in the strike zone and how their energy on the mound has become infectious.

“It’s a lot of fun when those dudes leave the bullpen, and you’re screaming their last name, cheering them on,” Peters said, “and they go out there and put on the performances that they have been.”

Through the first 13 games, the Pirates have enjoyed their bullpen balance, with lefties Anthony Banda, Aaron Fletcher and Peters and righties Bednar, Crowe, Hembree, Stratton and Miguel Yajure.

Changes are coming, beginning with Roansy Contreras optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday to be stretched out as a starter and Chase De Jong joining the staff. Yajure might not be far behind Contreras, given that Duane Underwood Jr. is getting close to returning from the 10-day injured list. The Pirates also will likely lose a reliever when the rosters return to 26 players on May 2.

For now, the bullpen is too focused on dealing to worry about that.

“Everybody we’ve got in that ‘pen, we’ve got the utmost confidence in every one of them,” Crowe said. “Whoever you give the ball to, Dillon and Bednar or Heath and Bednar and Stratton, whether them or it’s Fletch or any of those guys down there, we know they’re going to come in and do their job. We’ve got so much confidence in each other. Next man up, get the next guy out and we’re going to win some ballgames.”

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