Velasquez's slider overwhelms through seven scoreless innings

The Pirates' starting rotation has been a key reason why the team entered Sunday's play with the third-best record in baseball, and also why they walked out of PNC Park atop the NL Central and with the club's best record through the first 23 games of a season since 1992.

Vince Velasquez continued the rotation's dominant ways, hurling seven scoreless innings in the Pirates' 2-0 victory over the Reds, finishing off a four-game sweep of their division rival.

Velasquez only needed 100 pitches to get through seven scoreless, allowing only two hits and walking two batters while striking out 10 for the sixth time in his career. Both of those walks came in consecutive at-bats in the third inning, but a quick visit from Oscar Marin righted the ship and Velasquez kept the Reds off the board and preserved a 1-0 Pirates lead.

"He was outstanding," Derek Shelton said after the game. "Ten punchouts, two hits, two walks. He kind of lost his command at the bottom of the order there and walked Jose Barrero and Luke Maile, and then just locked it back in and stayed in attack mode the entire time. He was outstanding. That's about as good as you can be."

With the win, Velasquez improved to 3-2 on the season, and lowered his ERA to 3.76.

Velasquez's seven innings tied Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo for the longest outing by a Pirates starter this season, though it's the first time a starter pitched a shutout over seven innings. His slider was a key reason why he kept the Reds' lineup off balance, not being afraid to both throw it for strikes and use it as a chase pitch:

"Just trusting it and utilizing it in the right sequencing," Velasquez said. "I think it’s one of the primary pitches where I can get back in the zone. As much as I love throwing my fastball, it’s more so building confidence with that and utilizing it to my advantage, whether it’s getting a punchout or forcing contact. Striking out 10 today was nice. Once you execute, you start messing around with it, start going backdoors, back foot. It feels great to have that confidence and utilize it any count. All the work I’ve been putting in to develop this trust and this confidence in this pitch, I don’t see why not that I can use it 50% of the time."

When Velasquez signed in free agency over the winter, he came to the Pirates struggling to lock down a role as a starting pitcher. There were many doubters that he could hold down a spot, especially with the number of young arms that are knocking on the door from Class AAA Indianapolis.

But, having countless meetings with Marin from the moment he signed and staying engaged in constant communication has helped Velasquez put together a solid start to the season.

"To have that one-on-one with Oscar in the offseason and to be there firsthand to watch my bullpens and develop a game plan before going into spring training and work on things that I can utilize going into spring training, going in the regular season, whatever it is," Velasquez said. "Little cues here and there, just trying to establish that relationship and try to hear different perspectives from the outside looking in is also a great thing to take in. But I mean, I can't emphasize enough how useful it is to gather a team that I trusted this offseason and have them be part of it to come up with a game plan that I think is well-executed on my behalf."

The Pirates' starting rotation has now logged a quality start in 12 of the past 13 games, with Rich Hill's five innings and one run allowed in Saturday's 2-1 victory as the only outlier. Over the past 13 games, the rotation has a collective 2.45 ERA, which is the best in Major League Baseball.

Regardless of the quality of opponents on the schedule, that is a huge sign that the Pirates' rotation is in a much better spot as they look to become more competitive in 2023. And, they're doing it while filling up the strike zone with different kinds of pitches. For Velasquez, the slider was the key. For the rotation, it's pitching to everybody's strengths -- literally.

"I think it's just using the weapons you have," Shelton said. "It's individualized to each pitcher in terms of their attack plan and what's working. Rich, you know, ability to execute the breaking ball, ability to throw the curveball in. With Vinny, we knew the slider was good. Oscar has done a really good job of making it better and then more importantly, like, 'Let's use it as your weapon. Let's use it in the zone and make people beat you.' "