The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Seattle Mariners 5-1 on Thursday afternoon at PNC Park, securing a series victory and reaching a 41-40 record at the midway point of the Major League Baseball season.
Pittsburgh utilized home runs from Brandon Lowe and Henry Davis alongside 5 1/3 innings of one-run baseball from rookie starting pitcher Bubba Chandler to hand the American League West leaders a series loss.
The victory marks the first time since 2015 that the Pirates have posted a winning record after 81 games, while the Mariners extended their streak of scoring three runs or fewer to 11 consecutive games.
Kelly Earns 100th Win
Pirates manager Don Kelly achieved his 100th career victory as the team navigated multiple bases-loaded threats from Seattle's offense, which finished the game 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
"We bent," said Kelly. "We didn't break."
Kelly noted that the team needs to elevate its performance moving forward despite its improved position compared to last season.
"There's a better team that we'll see in the second half; they're more consistent," Kelly said.
"We need to play better in order to get to where we want to go. We're in a good spot, but we're not there yet."
Kelly expressed confidence that the roster can find momentum as players return from the injury list.
"Once it clicks and you start to go, it can add up fast," Kelly said.
"We just need to stay right there, and continue to grind and compete to allow ourselves to get to that point."
Lowe and Davis Homer
Lowe opened the scoring with a solo home run off Mariners starter Bryce Miller in the first inning and later added an RBI single in the eighth, bringing his season totals to 19 home runs and 51 RBIs.
"Every person in the world wants to be 20 games over [. 500], or whatever the best record in baseball is right now.
But that's not the reality of our situation," Lowe said.
"There are definitely some games there that, both sides of the ball, we probably lost versus gotten beat, and everybody in here knows it.
We understand it, and we move forward.
We're more cognizant of it, and if we don't make those kinds of mistakes anymore, we win a lot more ball games."
Davis increased the cushion with a two-run home run in the third inning, finishing the day 2-for-3 at the plate after entering the contest with a .
136 batting average.
"For sure. Obviously, it's a poke, especially to left field here," Davis said.
"Counting on [that strength] a little bit in the second half."
Davis explained his approach to adjusting his swing to utilize different parts of the ballpark.
"Obviously want to contribute much more than I have here and trying to use that part of the field, a little bit shorter," Davis said.
"I put the ball in the air plenty, so trying to do that."
Chandler earned the win after limiting Seattle to one run on five hits while escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and forcing an inning-ending double play from Julio Rodriguez in the fifth.
"That at-bat with Julio, I was like, man, I'm either striking him out, he's hitting a homer or he's putting the ball in play and we're getting out of this thing," Chandler said.
"He put it in play, and we got out of it. Just trying to simplify it.
That inning, it could have got bad, could have got worse, but good pitches to Cal and let the defense do the rest."
Chandler noted that he struggled to locate his breaking pitches during the outing, relying heavily on a fastball that peaked at 101.4 mph.
"If you just watched the game, you could tell that I really had no feel for any spin," Chandler said.
"...
To get out of there with one run and pitch out of a big situation, I was very pleased with it."
Jake Mangum started in the leadoff spot for Pittsburgh and preserved the lead with a sliding catch in the fourth inning to deny a line drive from Cole Young.
"Do I think that we're better than a . 500 baseball team through 81 games?
Yeah, absolutely," said Mangum.
"But at the same time, we're still learning how to win, and we haven't played our best baseball yet.
If I could pick a time to play your best baseball, it's the second half."
Mariners Frustrated
Seattle manager Dan Wilson pointed to hard-hit balls finding Pirates defenders as a major source of frustration during the team's offensive struggles.
"Frustrating one today," Wilson said.
"I thought we had some opportunities offensively where we got guys on base and hit the ball hard (and it) seemed to go right at them."
Wilson emphasized that the team must maintain its routine and focus on generating solid contact moving forward.
"We've been through it in terms of injuries and getting your lineup in a consistent place is something that we haven't been able to do," Wilson said.
"That can make it difficult as well, but I think we're getting close to being where we need to be health-wise, and that will bode well for us going forward."
Wilson remained confident that positive results would follow if the quality of the at-bats remained high.
"We put up some good at-bats today with runners on and runners in scoring position," Wilson said.
"I think the frustrating part is that they don't have anything to show for it.
You get a pitch on the plate and you hit it hard somewhere and they were either run down or right at somebody.
That becomes frustrating."
Wilson concluded that the team needs to turn its attention immediately to the upcoming schedule.
"It's part of baseball, for sure," Wilson said. "That's why we've got to move on and get ready for tomorrow.
We've just got to continue to put up good at-bats and hit the ball hard."
Mariners shortstop J. P.
Crawford drove in Seattle's solitary run with an RBI single in the fifth but expressed dissatisfaction with the lineup's overall execution.
"We aren't getting runners in," Crawford said quietly. "We haven't done our job.
You go through funks in a season and this is for sure one of them."
Crawford added that underlying quality does not replace the necessity of scoring runs to win baseball games.
"Yeah, we put good swings on the ball, but we didn't get any results," Crawford said. "So it doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't matter how we do it, we've got to start getting runners in."
Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller struck out 11 batters over 5 2/3 innings but suffered the loss after allowing the two home runs to Lowe and Davis.
"Besides two pitches, I threw the ball really well," he said. "I had a lot of swing and miss.
They put a good swing on two pitches."
Miller noted that his pitch selection was correct in the decisive at-bat against Davis, but execution faltered.
"I wanted to go sweeper, but the fastball would have been the right pitch if I just get it up," Miller said.
"He saw four four-seamers in that at-bat, and just gave him one he"
The Seattle Mariners travel to Cleveland to open a three-game series on Friday night, with right-hander Luis Castillo scheduled to pitch against Guardians left-hander Joey Cantillo.
