O’Neil Cruz hit the first-ever grand slam of his career, which further helped Bailey Flater and the Pittsburgh Pirates in winning the game against the Washington Nationals. The victory was secured with a score of 6-1 by the Pirates.
Henry Davis also contributed to Pittsburgh; the team had been struggling recently, winning only one out of five games. Isiah Kiner-Falefa also got two hits while scoring a run.
Falter (1-2) experienced a high, allowing just two hits over seven innings while scoring none. It is the tenth time this year a Pirates starter has done a minimum of six innings, leading all Major League Baseball.
Mitchell Parker (2-1) did an excellent job holding the Pirates to not more than one run in his six innings, and the rest of the Nats had trouble getting on board. Alex Call managed to add one more run on a sac fly in the ninth. Pittsburgh went ahead when Davis got his first home run of the season – a solo shot off the left-field foul pole in the fifth inning.
The Pirates added to their lead at 2-0 in the seventh when Davis, snagged with a bat, went down for the grounder to bring Enmanuel Valdez home. Amed Rosario now had to avoid the fractured bat of Davis to make the play at first. And in the seventh, tempers flared when a pitch from Jorge López came near and had almost hit Andrew McCutchen in the head; López was already ejected after hitting Bryan Reynolds.
Cruz put the game away almost at that point for Pittsburgh with a three-run homer, his third of the year. Cruz advanced back to first without knowing what had just happened, while Pham had just stopped short of the bag. After a review, Cruz was ruled safe, and Pham was called out.
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