Major League Baseball
Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 0
When: 7:05 PM ET, Saturday, September 2, 2017
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Temperature: 57°
Umpires: Home - Angel Hernandez, 1B - John Tumpane, 2B - Sean Barber, 3B - Ted Barrett
Attendance: 23529

PITTSBURGH -- A snapshot from the aftermath of the play that produced Pittsburgh Pirates' go-ahead run in the seventh inning Saturday night would be almost impossible to decipher without knowing some of the details.

Four of the nine Cincinnati fielders were sprawled on the grass, and John Jaso was across the plate to break a scoreless tie in what became a 5-0 Pirates' win over the Reds at PNC Park.

"Once you saw bodies starting to fall, tumbling starting to happen, you never know what's going to go on," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said.

Rookie Jordan Luplow added a three-run homer for the Pirates (64-72), who broke a four-game losing streak and moved six games ahead of the last-place Reds (58-78) in the National League Central.

Four Pirates' pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout.

Pinch hitter Jaso walked with one out in the seventh. An out later, Starling Marte hit a bloop single to shallow center. Second baseman Scooter Gennett backtracked to make a leaping stab at it, missed, fell and center fielder Billy Hamilton leapfrogged him, leaving them both sprawled on the grass.

"It's a little muggy weather," Hamilton said of a night when it drizzled off and on all game. "I didn't get as great a jump as I wanted to. Scooter made a terrific effort to make that play, which he almost made. After that, mistakes happen. The ball's wet."

Jaso stopped at third, then took off for home, which was uncovered as a throw by right fielder Phillip Ervin bounced off the mound and left scrambling reliever Michael Lorenzen (8-3) and catcher Stuart Turner in a heap in foul territory between third and home. Ervin got an error.

"You get in a situation where you have a one-out walk and then a soft single that (the fielders) end up rummaging (for) around out there," Cincinnati manager Bryan Price said.

"And then we get a throw that comes into the middle of the diamond that can't be redirected or cut (off), and it gets past everybody, unfortunately. And then there's nobody at the plate because the catcher and the pitcher are both backing up the play."

Luplow, who earlier in the game got his first major league hit, added to the 1-0 lead when lofted a one-out homer to left-center to make it 4-0 in the eighth.

"I'm just trying to square up baseballs, and if they happen to go over the fence, they do. If they don't, they don't," Luplow said. "I can't control that. I just try to put my 'A' swing on every pitch. ... That was my 'A' swing."

Marte drove in another with a fielder's choice later that inning.

The late runs came after strong performances by both starters, who both got no-decisions.

The Pirates' Jameson Taillon pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits with four strikeouts and one intentional walk.

"The volume of work tonight was really crisp, really efficient. And very aggressive off the mound," Hurdle said of Taillon.

"It's just nice to see a good clean, crisp outing. It was a good outing for him. It was fun to see."

Reliever A.J. Schugel (4-0) pitched the seventh and got the win.

Cincinnati's Tyler Mahle, making his second major league start, pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three, with no walks. It was a strong follow-up to his debut, also against Pittsburgh, when he took the loss. He pitched five innings then, giving up three runs and four hits, with five strikeouts and four walks.

Saturday, Mahle got into a bases-loaded jam in the fifth before getting Andrew McCutchen to fly out to end the threat with the game still scoreless.

"I've faced him six times now," Mahle said of McCutchen. "I'm not saying I figured him out, but I knew what I had to do.

"It's definitely special to be calm and make pitches. It's the same game (as in the minors)."

The biggest threat early came in the first when Hamilton led off the game with a double to right and moved to third on a wild pitch. Taillon got the next three batters out, two on strikeouts, to get out of the inning.

After Hamilton in the first, no one got as far as third until the fifth.

Pittsburgh's threat in the fifth included Josh Harrison getting hit on the left wrist with a 96 mph Mahle pitch -- Harrison's major-league-leading 23rd time being hit by a pitch. Harrison left the game after that inning.

NOTES: Cincinnati LHP pitcher Wandy Peralta left in the eighth after he came up limping because of hip pain following a pitch. ... Pittsburgh C Francisco Cervelli, who is on the DL because of left quadriceps inflammation, took batting practice. ... Reds manager Bryan Price will return in 2018, according to The (Cincinnati) Enquirer. Price was on a one-year contract for 2017 with a one-year club option for next season.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Cincinnati   Pittsburgh
Tyler Mahle Player Jameson Taillon
No Decision W/L No Decision
6.0 IP 6.0
3 Strikeouts 4
5 Hits 3
0.00 ERA 0.00
Hitting
Cincinnati   Pittsburgh
Billy Hamilton Player Starling Marte
2 Hits 3
0 RBI 1
0 HR 0
3 TB 3
.667 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Cincinnati 5 0 6 .161 14 6 0 2 3 1
Pittsburgh 11 1 14 .314 15 5 4 2 0 0