Gregory Polanco slid across home and slapped his left hand on the dirt as the largest crowd of the season at PNC Park let out a collective roar into the night.
"It was like 2015 crowd right there," Polanco raved afterwards. "That’s why I was so excited. ... It was a great night." That first Pirates run off Mets starter Jacob deGrom, the National League ERA leader, in the sixth inning wasn't the end of the celebration, either.
Backed by two RBI singles from Colin Moran, the first of which scored Polanco for the go-ahead run, Trevor Williams pitched six shutout innings and the Pirates scored five runs over their final three turns at the plate to beat the Mets, 5-0, Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 35,900 — the largest at the ballpark since April 22, 2017, when the Yankees were in town.
It was their league-leading 12th shutout, six of which Williams has started, and they've won 15 of their last 18 games for the first time since 1990. The Pirates, now 55-51, six games back in the division and 2 1/2 in the Wild Card race, continue to establish themselves as a threat in a wide-open playoff chase with only two days remaining until the non-waiver trade deadline.
"We’re playing good ball," Williams said. "I feel like we’ve been playing good ball throughout the year. You can say we’re a little streaky and the numbers show that, but when things are going good for us, things are going good — from an offensive side and our side on the bump."
It came at the expense of one of the worst teams in the league. However, the Pirates were without Corey Dickerson and Josh Bell, both placed on the 10-day disabled list before first pitch, and they were facing one of the best pitchers in the game. deGrom's 1.71 ERA ranked first in the majors, and he had allowed just three earned runs over his previous three starts.
Adam Frazier, first demoted to Triple-A seven weeks ago and recalled Wednesday, batted leadoff, while Jose Osuna started at first base and Jordan Luplow in left. Still, the Pirates did a fine job with run prevention and found a way to "create" offense, as Polanco put it, against deGrom.
Williams has now thrown 17 consecutive scoreless innings over his past three starts after he pitched six shutout innings Saturday, striking out five and allowing five hits with three walks. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and stranded two in both the third and fifth innings.
"I know that if they get one run across it could very well be the run that beats us," Williams said afterwards. deGrom held the Pirates to three hits over the first five innings. Polanco, who went 3 for 4 with two runs, led off the fourth with a double, but was thrown out trying to score from third on a chopper back to the mound.
deGrom, a 30-year-old right-hander, needed only 63 pitches to get through five innings, but the Pirates finally got to him the third time through the order. Polanco singled with two outs in the sixth and stole second base — his fifth of the season — before Moran pulled a ball through the right side for the first run to awaken the crowd:
"We have to be aggressive with a guy like that," Polanco said. "We’re not going to hit doubles, homers against him. We have to create." They added two off deGrom in the seventh, first with David Freese's ground ball to score Luplow, and then when Frazier doubled to right to bring home Jordy Mercer:
"I think it was just efficient offense and they didn’t score any runs," Clint Hurdle said. "It makes it tough for their starting pitcher." The Pirates added two more in the eighth when Polanco doubled and scored on a single by Moran, and Luplow stole second before Francisco Cervelli drove him in with a single.
Frazier went 3 for 4 and Moran went 2 for 4, while six different players had at least one hit against the Mets (43-59). "It’s all kind of flowing together. It’s one guy after another that’s getting the job done so far," Williams said.
Three Pirates relievers — Edgar Santana, Kyle Crick and Richard Rodriguez — allowed one hit over the final three scoreless innings and combined for six strikeouts to complete the shutout. The club's rotation has a 2.89 ERA with 149 strikeouts over its past 18 games. The offense, which had 11 hits Saturday night, has batted .289 while averaging 5.6 runs per game in that span. They're leading the majors in runs since the All-Star break and rank second in extra-base hits.
Prior to the Pirates going for a fifth consecutive series win Sunday afternoon, Neal Huntington will speak to reporters one last time before the non-waiver trade deadline Tuesday at 4 p.m. It's unclear what, if any, moves he'll make; however, his roster is suddenly a contender and Saturday night was an atmosphere unlike any at their home ballpark in quite some time.
"The crowd came out and it was fun to see," Williams said. "I hope it continues that way because we’re playing good ball right now. It’s encouraging to see all the support from yinzers."
1. Williams isn't the issue.
The back of the bullpen was outstanding again — Crick struck out the side on 18 pitches in the eighth — but an additional arm is needed now that Michael Feliz was demoted to Triple-A. There are quite a few options thought to be available at a low acquisition cost, including Jared Hughes.
The greater need is in the rotation, though. Nick Kingham now has a 4.80 ERA and Ivan Nova wasn't all that sharp Friday, either. I wouldn't advocate for Chris Archer of the Rays, given his age and cost, but there are a number of intriguing options available. Williams isn't the problem, though.
He, Jameson Taillon and Joe Musgrove have earned their spots in the rotation. Williams has a team-high nine wins and has the second-lowest ERA on the staff behind Taillon. His 40 walks in 111 innings are a concern, but he's able to escape jams by using his fastball and sinker to get key ground-ball outs. Also, he's not afraid to challenge hitters with a fastball high in the zone, as he did again to strike out Brandon Nimmo in the third, stranding two runners on base:
He also got Devin Mesoraco to roll over on a sinker for an inning-ending double play in the fourth. "It's executing pitches," Williams said. My gameplan going into tonight is I'm not deGrom. I'm not the type of pitcher he is, but I'm going to try to out-execute him. When I had to execute pitches I did."
During his 17 scoreless innings, Williams has allowed 13 hits with 10 walks to nine strikeouts. He doesn't have overwhelming velocity. His strikeout on Nimmo shown above was a 92-mph fastball. But he has a presence the Pirates love playing behind. It's no fluke he's been on the mound for those six shutouts.
"I like Trevor going on the mound, man," Hurdle said. "He’s that guy. If you don’t pay attention to him, you’re missing something."
2. Polanco needs to flourish.
It may take Marte a few days to return to form. That's not unusual. He went 0 for 4 to end his hitting streak at 17 games, although two of his outs had exit velocities of 97 mph or over. His entire routine was disrupted while sitting Thursday and Friday. Plus, every hitter in baseball has struggled to do much against deGrom. That said, the Pirates need Polanco to continue to produce at this sort of clip.
They're at their best when he's producing. Polanco's now hit safely in 22 of his last 27 games, batting .313 with nine home runs and 24 RBIs in that span. He leads all NL outfielders with 44 extra-base hits and has seven RBIs in his past seven games. Oh, and he has 17 RBIs in 22 games this month. It's no coincidence the Pirates started winning when those two started to hit well. There's also a chance the best is yet to come.
Polanco's only 26 years old. Sure, he has more than 2,000 at-bats in the big leagues, but he's finally self-aware of when his swing becomes long, and his second and third at-bats of the game were fine examples of how far he's come as a hitter. During his first at-bat, deGrom peppered the outer half with pitches, eventually striking Polanco out looking on a pitch high and outside.
"I was swinging, but I actually told [Ivan] Nova if I keep swinging at that pitch it’s going to be a long night," Polanco said with a chuckle. "I’ve gotta put it down, see it down and put a good swing on it."
The second time, though, Polanco stayed short and turned on a fastball low and inside, doubling over Jose Bautista's head in right center. After fouling off a changeup in the seventh, Polanco turned on another fastball, singling through the right side before scoring on Moran's single.
3. Running on contact ... again.
It's time to stop running on contact. For at least the third time this season, the Pirates sent a runner from third to home plate on contact with fewer than two outs. Even if their tendency to do so wasn't in the scouting report, Osuna's weak chopper to the mound gave deGrom plenty of time to look over and see Polanco sprinting towards home plate.
In case the Pirates weren't aware, deGrom entered Saturday ranked first in the majors in ERA, fifth in WHIP (0.97) and sixth in strikeouts (159). Still, they squandered an opportunity when Polanco led off the fourth inning with a double. Sure, it may not have mattered since Luplow flied out to right for the final out, but who knows if the at-bat would have gone differently had there been a runner on third base.
"We have to create, man," Polanco said when asked of the run-on-contact play. But there's also knowing the situation. He was running home no matter what, despite Osuna, a career .226 hitter in 261 big-league at-bats entering Saturday, facing a Cy Young candidate. Another bizarre decision.
It's the type of mistake that plagued the Pirates during their terrible June, and it's more important to play mistake-free baseball when you're without two of your top players: Bell and Dickerson.