Pirates stun Spencer Strider with 6-run 3rd inning, hold on to beat Braves

The Pittsburgh Pirates had what appeared to be a monumental mismatch in facing Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider, the major-league strikeouts leader and one of seven All-Stars in the starting lineup for the team with the best record in baseball.

And a mismatch it was, just not as expected.

Well, except for Liover Peguero. Playing on a hunch, the Pirates rookie infielder made a bold pregame prediction in the clubhouse that Strider wouldn’t survive the third inning.

Peguero proved prophetic, as the Pirates chased Strider amid a six-run third – tying the shortest start of his career – and held on after a 78-minute rain delay to beat the Braves, 7-6, Monday night before 14,627 at PNC Park.

“I’m not trying to be extra right now, but before the game, I screamed in here (and) said, ‘We’re gonna get him out before the third,’” Peguero said. “Everybody was like, ‘Why are you saying this?’ That’s what we did. Then right when I got in the dugout, I said, ‘I told y’all we were gonna get him.’ This team, it doesn’t matter who’s out there. We’re gonna try our best. That’s what we did.”

Strider (12-4) entered with an MLB-best 208 strikeouts and fanned three of the first five batters he faced before Endy Rodriguez ripped a double off the Clemente Wall in right field with two outs in the second inning. Strider got Jared Triolo to fly out to center to escape unscathed.

“When you’re facing a guy like that, that has strikeout stuff — 208 punchouts in 130 innings — then you get that first hit, for a young group like that, it’s like, ‘All right,’” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “There’s some confidence like, ‘Hey we can get after this guy a little bit.’ Then we had momentum and built the next inning on it.”

The Pirates (51-61) sent 11 runners to the plate in the six-run third inning, including eight with two outs, their most since doing so in the seventh inning of a 12-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on May 2, 2017.

Peguero led off with a double down the right field line, advanced to third on Alika Williams’ groundout to Strider and scored when Connor Joe hit a hard grounder that bounced off the chest of shortstop Orlando Arcia to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead over the Braves (70-40).

“When you see one of your friends or teammates doing those things, it makes you want to do the same or even better,” Peguero said of Rodriguez’s double. “I think that’s what happened right there. I saw that. It made me feel way better than what I was feeling. I’m like, ‘I’m trying to do that. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do right now.’ Copy. Paste.”

After Bryan Reynolds drew a full-count walk, Andrew McCutchen smacked a slider off the bottom of the bullpen fence in left-center for an RBI double and a 2-0 lead. Henry Davis followed with a single to score McCutchen to stretch it to 3-0. Strider gave up back-to-back walks to Jack Suwinski and Rodriguez to load the bases, then almost picked off Rodriguez at first base. Rodriguez dived back and rolled onto his back to avoid Matt Olson’s tag.

“I just hear, ‘Back!’ And I’m running back to the base,” Rodriguez said. “So I’ve got to be safe because I don’t want to stop the rally. I don’t want to be that guy. I know Olson made a bad tag, and I was safe.”

Triolo singled through short to score Davis and Suwinski to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead. That was it for Strider, who was replaced by Michael Tonkin after throwing 39 of his 63 pitches in the third.

Peguero singled up the middle off Tonkin to score Rodriguez to stretch the lead to 6-0, becoming the first Pirates player to record two hits in the same inning this season.

Strider was tagged with six earned runs on five hits and three walks in 2⅔ innings, in his shortest start in exactly a year: He allowed four earned runs on six hits and two walks in 2⅔ innings in a 5-2 loss at the New York Mets on Aug. 7, 2022.

“It was a great inning,” Triolo said. “I think it really helped change the momentum of the game, obviously. Putting up early runs like that, it was really good. Running him out of there too, that was awesome.”

The long inning had an adverse affect on Pirates starter Osvaldo Bido, who pitched three perfect innings before the Braves got to him the second time around the order. Ozzie Albies drilled a 1-0 slider 358 feet to right field for his 26th home run to cut it to 6-1. Austin Riley followed with a double to the North Side Notch, then scored on Matt Olson’s single to right to cut it to 6-2.

Then Bido got a bit of bad luck. He hit Sean Murphy with a pitch and gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna that scored Olson, skipped under Davis’ glove and rolled to the wall to allow Murphy to score when he slid to beat the tag at the plate and cut the Pirates’ lead to 6-4.

“I don’t know if sitting for as long as he did affected him, (but) we saw a significant drop in velo,” Shelton said of Bido, noting that his velocity dropped from 96-98 mph early to 93-94 mph in the fourth. “(Bido) left some balls in the middle of the plate. I think it shows you how good their offense is. They can score really quick and have really good at-bats. And then our bullpen did a really nice job after that.”

Joe led off the fourth by driving a 406-foot shot to left for his ninth homer to give the Pirates a 7-4 advantage, a cushion they would need.

Yerry De Los Santos replaced Bido in the fifth but gave up a pair of hits and was replaced by lefty Ryan Borucki with runners on first and third. Olson singled to right to score Albies to cut it to 7-5. Borucki got Murphy to fly out to center to prevent further damage.

Following the rain delay, the Braves put runners on first and third in the sixth against lefty Jose Hernandez, but the Pirates brought Carmen Mlodzinski in to face Ronald Acuna Jr. and get a fly out to center to escape. The Pirates drew a pair of walks in the bottom of the sixth, but Pierce Johnson stuck out McCutchen looking and Davis swinging.

Mlodzinski and Angel Perdomo kept the Braves at bay before All-Star closer David Bednar came on in the ninth. Michael Harris II hit a leadoff double to right, advanced to third on Acuna’s fly out to left-center and scored on Albies’ groundout to first to make it a one-run game. Bednar got Riley to ground out to second for his 23rd save.

“Everybody we have in here, we’re just having a lot of fun,” Triolo said. “Winning is a lot more fun than losing for sure, and I think you can tell when we win games, they’re pretty exciting. … It’s definitely a really good start to the series.”