Spencer Strider shines as Braves win 9th consecutive, hand Pirates 4th straight loss

It’s not often that Roansy Contreras isn’t topping the Statcast pitch velocity chart, as the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander throws a four-seam fastball that sits at 96 mph and hits the high 90s.

The top five velocities Friday night, however, all belonged to Spencer Strider. The Atlanta Braves rookie right-hander was touching triple digits in the first inning on his way to an eight-strikeout effort.

Making his first start at Truist Park, where the Braves handed out stick-on mustaches to fans, Strider tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings to pull away early for a 4-2 win over the Pirates.

It marked the ninth consecutive win for the Braves (32-27) and the fourth straight loss for the Pirates (24-32), who tied their season-long losing streak. The Pirates have scored only 12 runs in their past six games.

“We have to find some ways to score,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We had a couple opportunities early. The one thing is we have some young kids who are learning how to hit at the big league level. That can be a challenge.”

Strider (2-2) won the pitching duel against Contreras (1-1), even as both righties leaned heavily on their four-seam fastball and slider for 18 swings and misses. Strider had 14 pitches that were clocked at 99 mph or higher on the radar gun, the third time this season he’s recorded that many.

“He threw the ball well,” Shelton said of Strider. “We knew he had a big arm (and could) execute. The fastball had some life on it.”

Contreras, by contrast, struggled with his control. After giving up a leadoff double to Ronald Acuna Jr. in the first, Contreras retired the next seven batters before Michael Harris II singled to right and stole second base with one out in the third. Harris advanced to third on Acuna’s single, but Pirates catcher Michael Perez threw out Acuna on an attempt to steal second.

Then Dansby Swanson – who went 3 for 4 – hit a two-out, 3-2 fastball 379 feet off the left-field foul pole for his seventh home run to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Swansby is hitting .429 (9 for 21) this season.

“I feel like I missed the pitch,” Contreras said through team translator Mike Gonzalez. “Things are going to happen in a game, but I think I missed the pitch.”

Cal Mitchell and Tucupita Marcano hit back-to-back singles in the second inning but were stranded when Strider got Travis Swaggerty to pop out to center and Michael Perez to fly out to left.

The Braves added to their advantage in the fourth, when Travis d’Arnaud singled to left but Swaggerty booted the ball, allowing d’Arnaud to reach second. Ozzie Albies followed with a double off the right field wall to score d’Arnaud for a 3-0 lead.

Harris (2 for 3 with two runs) drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, going from first to third on Dansby Swanson’s single to center and scoring on Matt Olson’s single to right to give the Braves a 4-0 lead.

“I thought his stuff was actually good,” Shelton said of Contreras. “It’s just that he missed in the middle of the plate with some good hitters. If you miss in the middle of the plate at this level, you’re going to get hit hard. Execution of the fastball at times was good. Execution of the slider was good. It was just the times when he missed in the middle, they didn’t miss.”

The Pirates pulled Contreras, who allowed three earned runs on eight hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Tyler Beede hit d’Arnaud with a pitch to load the bases but got Albies to ground into a forceout at second to escape further damage.

Strider allowed two of his four hits in the sixth, when Bryan Reynolds singled and reached third on a single by Michael Chavis. The Braves brought in lefty Dylan Lee, who struck out Mitchell to stop another scoring opportunity.

“He had really good command on his fastball. To me, he was able to live on the outside corner pretty good,” said Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, who went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. “It was the first time we’ve ever seen him … but I felt he had good command of his pitches.”

The Pirates finally got on the scoreboard against Jackson Stephens in the eighth. Reynolds singled, advanced to third on Daniel Vogelbach’s single to right and scored on a double by Chavis that bounced over the left-field fence to cut it to 4-1. The Braves brought in A.J. Minter but Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Vogelbach to make it 4-2.

Kenley Jansen retired the side in the ninth for his 17th save, striking out Jack Suwinski on a 3-2 sinker to end the game.

“There’s no margin of error,” Shelton said. “When you play a team like this that’s this good and gets pitching – and they haven’t put themselves in a spot where they’ve beaten themselves – our margin or error is slim to none.”