PITTSBURGH — In the last two games before Friday, the Pirates had staked their opponent a lead in the first inning before climbing back to win.
Friday’s game looked to be following that formula again. Right-hander Mitch Keller found immediate trouble against the Washington Nationals, giving up four straight singles to start the game, amounting to two runs before getting out of the jam. He gave up another in the second, on yet another single, before the Pirates began chipping back. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, plating two runs of their own on an RBI single from Hoy Park.
The difference on this night was that the offense dried up and the pitching never shut the Nationals down. Over the remaining seven innings of the game, the Pirates mustered just three hits, a third-inning double from third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, a fifth-inning, bloop single from center fielder Bryan Reynolds and a ninth-inning single from second baseman Diego Castillo.
