Carmen Mlodzinski put together the best start of his major-league career as he threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the Pirates' 4-3 win over the Braves this afternoon at PNC Park. 

The right-hander allowed four hits and a walk while striking out two as he finished one out shy of his first career quality start.

"I can’t say enough about what he did. Competed and emptied the tank there. Did a great job," Don Kelly said. "He looked efficient. He was commanding everything and getting ahead. Really just staying in the zone, stayed in the zone all the way through competing like that. He’s had ups-and-downs. You see how it’s gone the first two times through the order and then he’s hit a little wall there. Today, you didn’t see that. He continued to push. He continued to grind through and I think that going from relieving to starting, it takes some time. We will see how he continues to progress. Today was great.”

Mlodzinski has been up and down as a starter this season. He's had three outings where he's allowed four or more runs over fewer than five innings, but he has also shown glimpses of promise, allowing two or fewer runs over four or more innings over his past three starts. In all, he now has a 5.20 ERA and 1.54 WHIP, to go with 26 strikeouts and 11 walks over 36 1/3 innings. 

"Definitely a good feeling," Mlodzinski said of the outing that dropped his ERA by 0.96. "I've been working hard, just trying to make the adjustment. I thought today the results were better. I think I had a lot of confidence seeing our offense battle today. They scored three runs against a guy (Chris Sale) who won the Cy Young last year. His stuff was unbelievable today. It was fun watching him go, but it was more fun watching our offense really compete. It just kinda put me in that mindset, just leave it all out there and compete for the team."

• The Pirates maintained a three-run lead up until the eighth inning when Tanner Rainey replaced Ryan Borucki with two outs and gave up a single to Austin Riley and a double to Matt Olson before walking Marcell Ozuna to load the bases. Joey Wentz entered and got ahead 0-2 before allowing a bases-clearing, game-tying double to Sean Murphy: 

"It was a good lane for Rainey with bringing in two righties and Olson in the middle," Kelly explained. "It didn’t work out. Some of that might be on me too: We had Rainey up a lot for different hitters in different stretches along the way. Just didn’t work out today in that lane, but he’s been doing a great job.”

• The Pirates struck out nine times today. This was the first time in four games that they totaled under 10 strikeouts. They're tied for seventh in the majors with 353 strikeouts.

• Before the game, Jared Triolo was recognized on the field for winning a Gold Glove Award as a utility player last season. He's the 21st Pittsburgh player to win a Gold Glove. 

PIRATES