PIRATES

Carmen Mlodzinski didn't get a pleasant greeting in his first relief appearance since shifting back to the bullpen: 

That's Isaac Paredes getting all of a high fastball, the second pitch Mlodzinski threw in the sixth inning, and sending it into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a solo home run that put the Astros on the board. 

That could have easily shifted the momentum in favor of the home team. But Mlodzinski didn't let things spiral in what turned into a 5-1 victory and a series win over the Astros here tonight at Daikin Park. Knowing that Jared Jones had just completed five scoreless innings, Mlodzinski knew that efficiency was going to be key, especially after surrendering a leadoff homer to the first batter he faced.  

“Not ideal second pitch in and you get a homer on the board, but I just felt like I trusted myself to go right after guys," said Mlodzinski, who ended up allowing the one run on four hits while walking none and striking out three over four innings to secure his second career major-league save. "We had a five-run lead when I was coming into the game, so the thought was, ‘let’s be efficient.’ Kinda had an idea that I might be able to finish this one, so efficiency was definitely in the back of my head. No walks, let the defense make some good plays behind me and kinda pitch to the game in a sense.” 

The crucial point in Mlodzinski's outing came in the seventh inning after allowing back-to-back one-out singles to Nick Allen and Jeremy Peña. That brought up Yordan Alvarez, who was 7 for 11 with a home run and five RBIs in the series heading into the at-bat. 

“Endy comes up for the mound visit and you know it’s a big at-bat," Mlodzinski said. "If he hits a homer there, it’s a one-run game at that point." 

Mlodzinski said he and Rodriguez decided to go a little bit against the grain in facing Alvarez. He threw him a sinker and a gyro slider out of the zone, falling behind before going to the sinker again in an effort to change things up. That's a pitch that Mlodzinski wouldn't ordinarily throw to a left-handed hitter. But Alvarez isn't your ordinary hitter. Mlodzinski located it up in the zone and got Alvarez to fly out for the second out of the inning. He ended up getting Christian Walker to ground out and coming away unscathed. 

"I don’t think he was necessarily selling out to that, but I can promise you that’s definitely not heavy on the scouting report for me against left-handed hitters," Mlodzinski said. "I didn’t think he was expecting a sinker there. When hitters are that good, you have to do things a little bit differently. I understand that just because you have a strength, it might not beat him on that day, and he’s had a great series. Don’t want to say I got away with one there, it’s a 2-0 sinker, but it got an out and I was happy with it, for sure.”