Andrew Heaney allows 5 runs as Diamondbacks shut out Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly recently received a compliment from his Milwaukee Brewers counterpart, Pat Murphy, as the two clubs battled over the weekend at PNC Park.

“The Pirates have been playing good baseball,” Murphy said. “Playing good defense, playing better in so many aspects … They’re playing loose, they’re playing free. Donnie’s got them in a good spot.”

Since Kelly succeeded Derek Shelton as skipper May 8, the Pirates have gone 7-9, compared to 12-26 at the time of the managerial change.

Kelly and the Pirates had a chance to keep manufacturing some momentum Monday night at Chase Field in Phoenix, against a struggling Arizona Diamondbacks that had lost five straight.

However, the Diamondbacks had their way with starter Andrew Heaney and won 5-0.

Heaney (3-4, 3.41 ERA) lasted five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, striking out two with three walks.

“(Arizona) was really aggressive coming out,” Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “They were on the fastball. They did a really good job of laying off the changeup, which is a big pitch for (Heaney).

“He fell behind a couple times, they were on that fastball and they didn’t miss it.”

Pirates No. 7 overall prospect Braxton Ashcraft, a 25-year-old righty, made his MLB debut out of the bullpen, succeeding Heaney on the mound the same day he was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis.

Ashcraft pitched three scoreless innings in relief, allowing two hits with a walk and strikeout. He threw 50 pitches, 32 for strikes.

Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson (2-1) pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings and picked up the win.

Heaney escaped a jam in the first inning, but was unable to do it again in the second, as Arizona took a 1-0 lead with no outs courtesy of a Tim Tawa sacrifice fly.

Randal Grichuk led off with a single before advancing to third on a Gabriel Moreno double.

Heaney recovered to get two outs, but Ketel Marte connected on a hanging curveball, depositing it into center field to bring home Moreno, handing the Diamondbacks a 2-0 advantage.

Arizona went up 3-0 in the third when Eugenio Suarez launched his 15th home run of the season, a 433-foot solo shot, into left-center field.

As Nelson kept the Pirates’ offense at bay, Heaney ran into more trouble in the bottom of the fifth, surrendering a two-run homer to Josh Naylor that put the Pirates (19-36) down 5-0.

Suarez had drawn a one-out walk before Naylor crushed a 90.5 mph fastball from Heaney over the right field wall.

“They were just putting good swings, swinging early, swinging aggressively,” Heaney said. “I was throwing a lot of balls over the heart of the plate. That’s going to get you in trouble regardless of who you’re facing most of the time.”

Taking over for Heaney in the sixth, Ashcraft struck out the first MLB batter he faced, Tawa, and pitched a scoreless frame.

Staying on in the seventh, Ashcraft allowed a leadoff single to Lourdes Gurriel but got three straight groundouts to escape the inning without letting up any damage.

The Pirates had a golden opportunity to lessen their deficit in the eighth, as they loaded the bases with no outs against Scott McGough (Plum).

But after Isiah Kiner-Falefa got aboard on an error, followed by walks to Oneil Cruz and Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates went down in order after Arizona inserted Justin Martinez to extinguish the fire.

Bryan Reynolds struck out, Spencer Horwitz popped out and Joey Bart grounded softly into a force out to end the frame.

Kelly stuck with Ashcraft in the eighth and he went on to pitch another scoreless inning, avoiding additional damage despite surrendering a leadoff single to Moreno.

“Stayed within himself,” Kelly said of Ashcraft. “It looked like he was really composed and made some nice plays off the mound there, too.”