Left-hander Andrew Heaney went 7 1/3 closure rounds and Oneil Cruz blasted a management home run to drive the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 1-0 victory over Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon.
The Pirates won their second in a row and raised three wins in four matches against the citizens, who have lost five of the last six. It was Pittsburgh’s first suspension of the season and the first time Washington has been closed out.
Cruz’s first career Leadoff Home Run and the fourth of the season was a 442-foot blast to the right-center field outside the Washington starter Trevor Williams (1-2) and followed his Grand Slam in his final bat in Wednesday’s 6-1 victory.
Williams went five rounds, which allowed the lonely driving on three hits and three walks while he knocked out five.
Heaney (1-1) continued Pittsburgh’s latest run of strong starting plate. The veteran gave up five hits, knocked out four and went two in 95 places.
Heaney struck Catcher Joey Bart, who returned to Pirates’ range after missing five games in a row due to the lower back tenderness.
Heaney’s gem marked the second excursion in a row of seven or more speechless rounds of a Pirates starter and the fourth in a row with at least six rounds.
Heaney went Nasim Nunez to open eighth and was removed after Alex Call’s sacrificial bundle with James Wood who came to the record. Reliever Ryan Borucki induced a soil of wood.
Pirate’s third bass man Ke’bryan Hayes saved a run when he briefly jumped a crusher of Amed Rosario along the line and threw to the first to end the inning. Dennis Santana replaced Borucki with one out in the ninth and recorded the last two outs to retrieve his second rescue.
Nathaniel Lowe had a double among his two hits when Washington only must have five hits in total.
National bench coach Miguel Cairo led Thursday’s game with manager Davey Martinez who served a game. Martinez was interrupted for a game and the shipper Jorge Lopez was canceled for three matches after Lopex threw a high fast ball to Andrew McCutchen during Wednesday’s game, which caused both benches to clear.
-Field level media
