Bailey Falter tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings Saturday night and Andrew McCutchen homered as the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates blanked the San Diego Padres 5-0.
Falter (4-3) gave up two hits, walked one and fanned one in a 79-pitch effort. The left-hander, who fetched 12 outs via grounders, dominated San Diego for the second time this year. He held the Padres to two hits over seven innings on May 3 in a game Pittsburgh lost 2-1.
Padres right-hander Dylan Cease (1-4) endured his 10th straight start without a win, working 4 2/3 innings. He allowed seven hits and three runs while walking one and whiffing six.
The Pirates outhit the Padres 12-2, with Bryan Reynolds going 3-for-5 and knocking in two runs. McCutchen, Oneil Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa each added a pair of hits.
Pittsburgh wasted no time taking an early lead. Reynolds sliced an RBI single to left for a 1-0 edge three batters into the game, scoring Cruz, who led off with a double into the right field corner.
Ke’Bryan Hayes increased the advantage to 2-0 in the fourth with a two-out single up the middle that scored Adam Frazier, who had stroked a double into the left field corner.
McCutchen made it 3-0 in the fifth when he jumped on a first-pitch hanging slider from Cease and cracked his fourth homer of the year.
The Pirates put the game away in the seventh with four straight hits off reliever Yuki Matsui. Cruz and McCutchen singled, followed by Reynolds’ RBI double to right and Spencer Horwitz’s run-producing single to left.
San Diego mounted just two scoring threats against Pittsburgh. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the first with an infield single, moved up to second on Luis Arraez’s sacrifice bunt and stole third. But Jackson Merrill’s sinking liner to left field with two outs was gloved by Alexander Canario to end the threat.
The Padres put runners at first and second with two outs in the eighth, but pinch hitter Elias Diaz fanned on a checked swing.
–Field Level Media
