Bubba Chandler shines again, Tommy Pham lifts Pirates to victory

Pirates right-hander Bubba Chandler is checking off boxes and he’s doing it quickly.

Chandler, the top pitching prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, picked up his first major-league win Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis as the Pirates held off the Cardinals to earn a 2-1 win, their second straight.

“I wanted to get a major-league win,” Chandler said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “I didn’t know if it was going to come last week, this week, in two years, whatever. But it’s definitely cool. I’ll always remember Busch Stadium.”

The 22-year-old entered the game in the fourth inning, facing a one-run deficit, and threw four innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit and striking out three. He threw 53 pitches, locating 33 for strikes, and lit up the radar gun by throwing 22 pitches over 99 mph and topped out at 100.6 mph.

Chandler became the first major-league pitcher to get a save in his first appearance and a win in his second since Mickey Weston did so for the Baltimore Orioles in 1989.

During his major-league debut Aug. 22, Chandler threw four innings of scoreless relief and struck out three while allowing two hits to pick up the save in a 9-0 win over the Colorado Rockies.

“Pitching gets easy when you’ve got seven guys behind you that are Major League Baseball players for a reason,” Chandler said. “When a ball goes in the air or on the ground, I have no doubt in my mind that the play is going to be made. It kind of relieves the stress and the anxiety of a guy who’s just got up here. So it’s pretty awesome.”

So far through his professional career, Chandler has worked as a starter but has come out of the bullpen for his first two major-league appearances as the Pirates give a plethora of younger pitchers — Mlodzinski, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows and Johan Oviedo — their chance in the rotation.

Despite Chandler’s early success, manager Don Kelly isn’t ready to announce when Chandler might make his first start as a Pirate.

“A little too soon to tell,” Kelly said. “There are a lot of discussions going on every day with the fluidity of the rotation. He’s done everything we could’ve asked as far as dominating the outings. We’re gonna have some conversations and see where the chips fall. But he’s doing everything that he needs to do.”

Left fielder Tommy Pham put Chandler in position for the win when he stroked a first-pitch cutter from Cardinals starter Sonny Gray up the middle to score Jared Triolo and Spencer Horwitz for a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning.

“That’s what we talked about,” Kelly said of Pham’s aggressiveness at the plate. “The approach, sometimes, isn’t going up there to work the count and get deep in the game. It’s going up there looking for a pitch that we can handle early on and driving it through the middle. He did exactly that. He’s been so great, especially with runners in scoring position.”

Chandler, Isaac Mattson and Dennis Santana, who picked up his 10th save of the season, combined to throw six innings of scoreless relief and close the door. Neither Mattson nor Santana allowed a hit.

Heading into Wednesday’s matchup, the Cardinals were 45-3 when leading after five innings, the best mark in the major leagues.

Mlodzinski earned the start for the Pirates, his second since being placed in the bullpen following a midseason stint with Triple-A Indianapolis. He worked three innings and struck out four while walking three and allowing one earned run.

The 26-year-old effectively used his splitter during his 46-pitch outing, throwing it 14 times while producing six swings and misses. He also utilized a curveball to keep hitters off balance.

“The results were fine in terms of keeping the team in the ballgame,” Mlodzinski said. “But definitely just felt a little choppy, a little off, didn’t execute everything to exactly the zone I wanted to. But I was able to make the pitches that I needed to when they had guys in scoring position to keep it close.”

The Cardinals scored their lone run against Mlodzinski when catcher Pedro Pagés drove in Masyn Winn from second with an RBI single to right field.

The Pirates were able to catch second baseman Thomas Saggese in between second and third on the play when Horwitz cut off Bryan Reynolds’ throw home and relayed it to Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the inning-ending out.

After a trying stint as a starter at the beginning of the season, Mlodzinski has excelled in the second half. He produced an ERA of 1.80 in July and has followed that up with a 1.84 ERA in August. He’s also struck out 38 batters over the last two months while allowing just 19 hits.

Gray kept the Pirates off balance for most of the night, limiting them to one hit through five innings. However, a leadoff double from Kiner-Falefa, who went 2 for 3, in the sixth inning and a costly throwing error by first baseman Willson Contreras set the stage for Pham’s go-ahead hit.

“We were just grinding out at-bats,” Kelly said. “Isiah (Kiner-Falefa) had two really good at-bats, Triolo came up, had that really great at-bat to walk. Then we were able to get things going by being able to capitalize on Spencer’s ball there and Tommy coming up with the huge hit that was the difference in the game.”

Gray, who worked seven innings, allowing three hits, two runs and three walks while striking out seven, threw 39 pitches in the inning and walked two while giving up two hits. He did strike out Oneil Cruz to strand the bases loaded and minimize the damage.