Andrew McCutchen's leadoff homer, Bailey Falter's strong start lead Pirates past Brewers

After six games of scuffling, the Pittsburgh Pirates found a winning combination that worked for the second consecutive game: A leadoff home run and a quality start.

Andrew McCutchen homered for the second consecutive game, and lefty Bailey Falter matched a career best with eight strikeouts over seven innings as the Pirates beat the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1, on Tuesday night before 9,107 at PNC Park.

Falter (2-1) held the Brewers to one run on three hits and two walks while tying his career best in strikeouts. Of his 85 pitches, Falter threw 61 for strikes. He leaned heavily on his fastball, throwing 60.

“That’s the best I’ve felt for sure,” Falter said. “I mean, I don’t think my arm’s felt that good in a really long time.”

Where Jared Jones dazzled with his triple-digit velocity Monday night, Falter’s fastball never topped 94 mph. They have proven to be a combination that throws off hitters’ timing.

“I tell everyone Jared going and then me following him, I think it’s a guy goes out there, speeds ‘em up, I come in and slow ‘em down,” Falter said. “I feel like we’ve got a good little thing going on right now.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton credited Falter for working both sides of the strike zone and using his elite extension and funky delivery to get late movement. Falter generated 34 swings, with 13 whiffs and 13 called strikes.

“There was a lot of swing and miss, a lot of cheating and swinging and missing — and when you’re doing that, it opens up a different part of the plate,” Pirates catcher Joey Bart said. “I think it’s the extension, the cut profile, the funkiness. I don’t know. I mean five, six years ago nobody knew. They just called it an invisible fastball. Now, you kind of understand the release and everything’s a little bit odd. At the end of the day, people just don’t know how to hit it up in the zone.”

McCutchen became the first Pirates player to hit a home run in back-to-back games this season when he connected on Tobias Myers’ first-pitch fastball for a 105.1-mph line drive that sailed 358 feet inside the left-field foul pole for a 1-0 Pirates lead in the first inning.

It was McCutchen’s 24th home run leading off a game — his second in as many days after moving to the top of the order — and his 100th home run at PNC Park. That’s the most of any player in the history of the ballpark that opened in 2001.

“I would say so far it’s worked out OK,” Shelton said, with a smile.

After the Pirates stranded runners at first and third in the second, they got out of a jam in the third. The Brewers got singles from Joey Wiemer and Brice Turang and had runners on second and third when William Contreras hit a short chopper back to the mound.

Falter made an underhand throw to Bart at home plate, and Wiemer was caught in a 1-2-5-1 rundown. Falter then got Willy Adames to ground out to short to prevent the Brewers from scoring.

After walking Rhys Hoskins to start the fourth, Falter got Blake Perkins to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to start a stretch of retiring 11 consecutive Brewers. Milwaukee’s top six batters went a combined 0 for 21, as the Pirates held the Brewers to a total of three hits.

Falter had a pair of strikeouts in both the fifth and sixth innings, tying his career best: He had eight strikeouts for the Pirates last Aug. 21 against the St. Louis Cardinals, and he did so against the Pirates while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies on July 29, 2002.

The Pirates got singles by Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes to start the sixth, then a single to left by pinch hitter Connor Joe to drive in Reynolds for a 2-0 lead.

“He’s extremely prepared, and when you’re coming off the bench, you have to be,” Shelton said of Joe. “Sometimes, you find a hole or two. Today he found one, which was good.”

When Gary Sanchez smashed a 2-1 sinker 432 feet to left field — at an exit velocity of 113.5 mph — for a leadoff homer that cut it to 2-1 in the eighth, Falter was finished.

In his season debut March 31 at Miami, Falter endured a five-run first inning that included a grand slam by Jazz Chisholm. Since the second inning of that game, Falter has posted a 1.73 ERA while holding opponents to a .154 batting average over 26 innings.

“No. 1 fastball execution, and No. 2 is just attack,” Shelton said. “He’s in attack mode. He’s going after people. I think we’ve really seen that since probably the second inning of the year that he pitched. The first two innings of the year weren’t very clean, but he stayed in attack mode. I think we’re seeing the results of that.”

The Pirates bullpen came through, as Colin Holderman struck out pinch hitter Sal Frelick and walked Turang before striking out Jake Bauers and getting Contreras to fly out to center. In the ninth, David Bednar struck out Adames and got Hoskins to ground out to short before getting Perkins to ground out to second to earn his fourth save.

Bednar was quick to defer credit.

“Oh, man, he pitched a heck of a game,” Bednar said of Falter. “And ‘Holdy’ going out there, punching the tickets and call him up and secure the win was big.”