PITTSBURGH — Cal Mitchell rounded first base and pumped his fist, the emotion of the moment evident. The 23-year-old outfielder emphatically clapped his hands as he crossed home plate. In the dugout, good friend, former roommate and Saturday’s hero, Jack Suwinski, was there waiting for Mitchell after his first MLB home run, another reason for Pirates rookies to celebrate.
That’s seemingly happened a lot lately, the Pirates playing the kids, and the kids stealing the show. Youth was once again served Sunday, as the Pirates rolled to a 3-0 victory over the Diamondbacks at PNC Park, enabling them to win another series and improve to 5-1 over their past six.
Mitchell’s dinger was all Pittsburgh would need on an afternoon where a second-year player, 28-year-old Zach Thompson, continued his recent string of strong starts. Suwinski followed his walkoff homer Saturday with a couple of well-struck doubles in the series finale and finished with three hits.
In fact, five of the six hardest-hit balls for the Pirates on the afternoon came off the bats of rookies, including the two highest exit velocities for either team with Suwinski’s doubles — 108.9 mph in the fourth inning and 107.5 in the sixth.
Suwinski is now 9 for 20 over his past five games, a .450 average to raise his season mark to .229.
This recent trajectory adds a significant amount of intrigue into the Pirates season, a campaign that many probably thought was bound to be dull. With Travis Swaggerty in the house, the Pirates have a bunch of young, talented outfielders they’ll want to play in Suwinski, Swaggerty and Mitchell.
Signed to a two-year, $13.5 million contract at the start of the season, Bryan Reynolds is obviously going to play as much as he’s able. In center field, too, manager Derek Shelton reiterated before the game.
That leaves those three to rotate among the other two positions, plus an element of uncertainty whenever Ben Gamel returns from his left hamstring strain.
But leave that for another day. For now, the Pirates have gained some serious steam — they’re only four games under .500 at 24-28 — and they’ve done so by turning things over to younger players, an encouraging step both in the short- and long-term views of the franchise.
Mitchell got things started when he led off the fifth inning by going down to get a curveball at the bottom of the strike zone, pulling it into the right-field seats at 99.6 mph. After collecting five hits in his first 17 at-bats, including a pair of doubles, Mitchell had been just one for 16 over his past five games before Sunday.
The Pirates extended their lead to 2-0 in the sixth inning whenever Suwinski smoked his second double, stole third and scored on a 391-foot sacrifice fly from Diego Castillo, who made 776 feet of outs Sunday before picking up a single in the eighth inning.
Mitchell’s home run put Thompson in position for his third win of the season after the right-hander delivered another strong outing, giving the Pirates five scoreless innings. Thompson allowed four hits — all singles — while walking two and striking out four.
Thompson got 17 called strikes, eight whiffs and used five pitches to do it. He also got a terrific defensive play from Ke’Bryan Hayes, who robbed Diamondbacks left fielder David Peralta with an over-the-shoulder grab in the fourth inning.
After a brutal April where Thompson went 0-3 with a 10.05 ERA in four starts, he has allowed just seven earned runs in his past seven appearances (six starts) totaling 30 2/3 innings (2.05) with eight walks and 23 strikeouts.
The Pirates increased their lead to 3-0 in the seventh inning when Tyler Heineman had a leadoff double, Mitchell moved him over, and Hayes singled by blooping a 2-0 pitch into shallow left-center field.
