When the Pirates broke camp in February in Bradenton, Fla. they knew what they had in the likes of Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller and Bailey Falter. But, after signing Andrew Heaney to a $5.5 million contract just days before the start of their Grapefruit League schedule, he was a bit of an unknown, at least to the organization.

The left-hander had the sterling reputation of a savvy veteran who had pitched in the big games and won a World Series with the Rangers in 2023. The Pirates knew he could eat up innings and be a valuable voice for the rest of the starting rotation.

However, through his first five starts of the season, the 33-year-old has been much more than that as he's thrown 31 1/3 innings and tallied a 1.72 ERA which ranks ninth amongst qualified pitchers in Major League Baseball.

Heaney's latest gem? A six-inning performance in a 3-0 win over the Angels at Angel Stadium tonight where he allowed just one hit, carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, struck out the first six batters he faced and tallied nine total punch outs while throwing 95 pitches.

"That’s why he’s a 10-year veteran," Derek Shelton said after this one. "That’s why he has an ability to mix and match and I think we’ve really seen that, especially over the last two starts."

Heading into this matchup, Heaney hadn't allowed a run in 10 1/3 innings and allowed just five hits his last time out. After a rough spring training, which is common for Heaney after 10 years in the major leagues, he's been lights out. But, on this night, he was deceptively special.

While facing a lineup that was stacked with eight right-handed hitters and just one lefty, -- Nolan Schanuel -- Heaney leaned on locating his fastball. The Angels' Statcast broke toward the beginning of the fifth inning and to that point, Heaney's fastest pitch was clocked at 92 mph.

So, how did a veteran like Heaney, who doesn't lean on high-velocity stuff, draw 52 swings and 24 misses while only allowing one hit -- a Travis d'Arnaud double in the bottom of the fifth inning. 

Shelton said it was a combination of Heaney elevating his fastball toward the top of the zone, but also how he mixed in his breaking pitches. 

"The fastball execution was just really good today," Shelton said. "It looked like he was extremely deceptive, I don’t know if the slot was lower, but they didn’t get a lot of good looks at it and they have a lot of good right-handed hitters in that lineup."

For a more expanded explanation, I went to the man behind the plate. The one who called the game and saw first hand just how good Heaney was on a night in which he became the first Pirates left-hander to strike out at least six straight batters since Francisco Liriano on June 1, 2013.

When I asked Joey Bart what makes Heaney's fastball so deceptive, he looked back to when the Pirates faced the Rangers last year in Arlington, Texas at Globe Life Field. The Rangers won 1-0 and Heaney pitched five innings, allowed five hits and struck out eight, two of those were at Bart's expense.

"I think he’s just funky, man," Bart said. "That fastball just plays a little bit odd. It’s different." 

But, what makes Heaney's fastball so ... funky? 

“It’s more the characteristics of the pitch. He had the funky fastball before people really knew what it was 10 years ago whenever he came in," Bart said. "But he’s been able to really use some other pitches to help his fastball out, some off-speed pitches and some different angles and stuff, so overall he’s been really attacking the zone and really understanding how he’s gonna put guys away. He’s doing a really good job with that.”

So, what worked so well tonight that Angels hitters were looking like this:

"He was nailing his spots and he was working in well and he was working away well, too, when we needed to," Bart said. "But I feel like he just kept the pressure on everybody and was throwing early strikes and making guys either swing or make a decision, and a lot of them were late.”

Heaney also wasn't giving the Angels one consistent look. He would change his arm slot, the timing of his delivery and utilized precise location of all his pitches to keep the Angels off balance. Take a look at this pitch map from Baseball Savant:

BASEBALL SAVANT

This doesn't include all of his pitches due to the Statcast malfunction, but you can get a good idea of what was working. He was dotting his fastball all over the zone and was utilizing his breaking stuff at the bottom of the zone, like you should, as Heaney would remind me when I asked if that was the gameplan tonight.

"Typically you don't want to throw the breaking balls at the top, you know what I mean? You want to get it down," Heaney said. "Slider wasn't particularly good today, but mixed in enough curveballs, moved the fastball around. If you're gonna throw a lot of heaters, just move it around the zone, keep guys honest. And then throw a wrinkle in with some of the sinkers." 

In a starting rotation that includes the likes of Skenes, Keller, and eventually Jones, at some point this season, having a seasoned veteran like Heaney who has always been capable of setting hitters down in his own way -- he recorded his 1,100th career strike out tonight -- is a welcomed addition. 

But, when he continues to go out and produce outings like he did tonight as he lowered his ERA to 1.72 which ranks ninth among qualified pitchers in Major League Baseball, that's just:

"Extremely valuable," Shelton said.