Mitch Keller was effective through 6 2/3 innings and Nick Gonzales extended his hitting streak to six games with an RBI double to help the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-1 win against the visiting Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
Keller (6-3) allowed one run on six hits to go along with no walks and four strikeouts to earn his first career win against Atlanta, improving to 1-3. David Bednar tossed a scoreless ninth for his 11th save of the year.
Braves starter Reynaldo Lopez (2-2) went 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) and five hits. He walked one and fanned three. Lopez’s night came to an end when the game went into a rain delay that lasted nearly 30 minutes in the bottom of the fifth.
Atlanta has lost two in a row and seven of its past 10 games.
After the Braves tied things at 1 in the top of the fourth, the Pirates quickly regained the lead.
Oneil Cruz drew a walk to lead off the home half of the inning. That brought up Gonzales, who banged a double off the right field wall to bring home Cruz and make it 2-1. Gonzales is 9-for-22 (.409) over his past six games.
Gonzales advanced to third on the play on a fielding error by Ronald Acuna Jr., then scored on Edward Olivares’ sacrifice fly to put Pittsburgh ahead 3-1.
The Pirates added another run in the seventh after Ji Hwan Bae drew a one-out walk. Andrew McCutchen knocked a line-drive single to left field, and Bryan Reynolds sent a single up the middle to score Bae.
Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the third. Jared Triolo hit a double down the left field line, and Bae followed with a single to center that drove in Triolo.
Atlanta wasted little time responding.
Matt Olson reached on a one-out single in the fourth. Then, after Orlando Arcia flied out, Michael Harris II singled to move Olson to second and Jarred Kelenic’s line-drive single to right plated Olson to tie things at 1-1.
–Field Level Media