A day after a Don Kelly decision backfired when he pinch-hit for the hottest bat in his lineup, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager took another strategic risk against the Washington Nationals.
Knowing the Nationals could load the top of their lineup with left-handed hitters, Kelly opted to use lefty reliever Mason Montgomery as an opener instead of starting righty Carmen Mlodzinski.
This move worked wonders.
After Montgomery got through the top of the order, Mlodzinski tossed six scoreless innings of relief as the Pirates scored their second shutout of the season with a 2-0 win Wednesday night before 11,244 at PNC Park to take the lead in the four-game series.
“You know that he would want to start, and he was totally open and willing to do whatever for the team to put us in a better position,” Kelly said. “He was totally open to coming in; that would hopefully give him a chance to get deeper into the game.”
Mlodzinski became the sixth Pirates pitcher to allow two or fewer hits in six scoreless innings of relief in the expansion era (since 1961), joining the company of Harvey Haddix (1961), Al McBean (1963), Vernon Law (1966), Dock Ellis (1968) and Bob Johnson (1972).
Mlodzinski is the first Pirates reliever to pitch at least six scoreless innings, regardless of hits allowed, since Steve Cooke tossed seven scoreless against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 21, 1992.
Montgomery was efficient in throwing nine of 11 pitches for strikes in the first inning. He gave up a one-out double to Curtis Mead, who reached third on Daylen Lile’s groundout to second, but struck out Brady House on an elevated 98.5 mph fastball.
Nationals right-hander Jake Irvin struck out the first two batters he faced before walking Bryan Reynolds and giving up a jam-shot single to Ryan O’Hearn. Marcell Ozuna hit a line drive to right field to score Reynolds for a 1-0 lead, marking his second consecutive game with an RBI.
Then the Pirates took advantage as O’Hearn scored on an infield single by Nick Gonzales when shortstop CJ Abrams made the throw to first base instead of opting for the forceout at second. Irvin then hit Spencer Horwitz with a pitch to load the bases for Nick Yorke, who grounded out to first to end the inning.
Mlodzinski entered in the second inning and hit CJ Abrams with a pitch, then retired the next eight batters. Mlodzinski had runners on first and second in the fifth but got a flyout and forceout.
The Pirates had a pair of runners in scoring position with two outs in the fifth inning, but Irvin got Ozuna swinging on a 2-2 slider to escape unscathed. Abrams doubled in the sixth, but Mlodzinski responded by striking out Joey Wiemer to end the frame.
After Gregory Soto pitched a clean eighth, Dennis Santana hit Abrams with a pitch with one out in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate. But Santana got pinch hitter Nasim Nunez to line out to center, then got Drew Millas to fly out to right to earn his second save.
