Andre Jackson strikes out career-high 7 to earn 1st MLB win as Pirates sweep Royals

Andre Jackson’s start against the Kansas City Royals was only the third of his major-league career, and the right-hander gave the Pittsburgh Pirates reason to consider making it a more permanent role.

Jackson struck out the first five batters he faced and a career-high seven of the first 10. Six strikeouts came on a changeup that generated 17 swings and six swinging strikes.

Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski hit solo home runs to lead the Pirates to a 4-1 win Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium for a sweep of the three-game series.

The Pirates (61-73) tied their 2021 win total and are one victory shy of matching their win total of last season. They are off Thursday before beginning a three-game series at St. Louis.

Jackson (1-1) allowed one run on two hits and two walks on 86 pitches over 5 2/3 innings to earn his first major-league victory. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said “there’s definitely a starter possibility in there” for the 27-year-old Jackson, who took full advantage of the opportunity.

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“He’s really run with it,” Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “He’s aggressive. He’s pitched in different roles. He’s taken the ball and gone right after people. That’s the biggest thing. The indication of that is how he started the game, going right after guys.”

Jackson became the first Pirates pitcher to strike out the first five batters since Bruce Kison on June 28, 1979. That’s something no other Pirates pitcher has accomplished over the last 60 seasons, per Elias Sports Bureau. Jackson’s seven strikeouts eclipsed his previous career best of six set Aug. 18 at the Minnesota Twins.

“It’s awesome, especially a moment like that where he’s just out there doing his thing,” Suwinski said of Jackson. We’re there for him, but he was doing pretty well through those first handful.”

After starting 84 games in the minor leagues, Jackson moved to the bullpen this season with the Los Angeles Dodgers before being traded to the Pirates in late June for cash. He has worked in multiple roles for the Pirates and threw six innings in relief in his last outing against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 24.

“I was always a starter coming up,” Jackson said. “This year I was in the bullpen, so I learned a lot about coming in and attacking guys, being relentless from pitch one and it’s something I try to carry over starting now.”

Reynolds got the Pirates started by driving Angel Zerpa’s 2-2 fastball to left for a 436-foot solo shot, his 19th home run of the season, and a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

The Pirates added two more runs in the second. Liover Peguero and Vinny Capra hit back-to-back doubles, the first extra-base hit and RBI of Capra’s career, and Suwinski singled to right to score Capra to make it 3-0.

The Royals didn’t get a hit off Jackson until the fourth inning, when shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. hit his 27th homer on a 397-foot leadoff blast to left to cut it to 3-1.

Jackson allowed only one other hit, Freddy Fermin’s leadoff single in the fifth, but the Pirates answered that with a 5-4-3 double play. Suwinski snagged Samad Taylor’s deep fly at the warning track in center to end the inning.

The Pirates sent Jackson out for the sixth inning, and he issued a one-out walk to Maikel Garcia before Witt drilled a 397-foot shot that Suwinski chased down in right-center. Lefty Ryan Borucki replaced Jackson and struck out MJ Melendez to end the inning.

Suwinski crushed Collin Snider’s 0-1 sinker 436 feet to straightaway center for his team-leading 22nd home run to give the Pirates a 4-1 lead. Suwinski went 2 for 4 with two RBIs for his first two-hit game of the month. His first homer since July 24 at San Diego, ending a stretch of 28 games and 86 at-bats without going deep, had Suwinski smiling as he was mobbed by his teammates in the dugout.

“That was a really good thing,” Shelton said. “Sometimes that’s all it takes. He hit the ball yesterday that hit the top of the wall. Today, he hit one that hit the back wall, which is hard to do in this ballpark.”

The Pirates got scoreless outings from Borucki, Thomas Hatch and Colin Holderman before turning to two-time All-Star closer David Bednar in the ninth.

Maikel Garcia hit a deep fly over the outstretched glove of center fielder Ji Hwan Bae for a leadoff triple, but Bednar got Witt to fly out to center, struck out Melendez on a curveball and got Nelson Velasquez to pop up to third to earn his 29th save.

It was a win that saw the Pirates get a strong start and finish for the sweep.

“Anytime the starters can go out there and get deeper into the game,” Jackson said, “it helps the bullpen gets their matchups and helps the staff to line it up to get the right guys into the game to put it away.”