Chris Archer leads Pirates to victory against Braves
The baseball left Freddie Freeman’s bat at 106.3 mph, and Chris Archer immediately knew.
When it landed 405 feet from home plate in the shrubbery beyond PNC Park’s center-field fence, Archer put his hands on his knees and bowed his head.
It bothered him because it could have been avoided. Catcher Jacob Stallings wanted a changeup. Archer threw the fastball.
“Should have trusted what he called,” Archer said. “But, you know what, I learned. For the rest of the day, I went with pretty much what he called.”
The result was a second consecutive solid start for Archer and a 6-1 victory Thursday for the Pittsburgh Pirates (30-31) before a crowd of 18,232. They took two of three games from the Braves (33-29).
“Nice to get a series win against a really good club, really good lineup,” said Archer, who defeated the Milwaukee Brewers last week. “I think it did something for this clubhouse. Looking forward to rolling into Milwaukee with the best swagger we have.”
Archer (3-5) pitched into the seventh inning for the second consecutive start, striking out six and only allowing two walks and five other hits after Freeman’s homer.
“It was Pitch 8 for the day,” Archer said. “I knew I had a lot more pitches.”
Stallings, who didn’t play Wednesday but worked closely with winning pitcher Joe Musgrove between innings, is developing a strong rapport with the staff even though he’s the team’s third-string catcher.
“He and I are starting to build a lot of trust,” Stallings said of Archer. “It’s fun when we’re on the same page, and it works.”
Stallings downplayed his role in the victory, noting Archer got several outs after shaking him off. But Stallings said coaching might not be a bad career path after he retires. After all, his father, Kevin Stallings, coached college basketball for 25 years, including two at Pitt.
“I learned from a good one,” he said.
Meanwhile, Archer received plenty of support from the Pirates hitters, who scored at least five runs for the ninth time in the past 11 games. Plus, the bullpen was solid, with Francisco Liriano and Felipe Vazquez combining to allow one hit in three scoreless innings.
In the second, Colin Moran and Gregory Polanco hit back-to-back homers after the first of three doubles by Josh Bell.
In the eighth, Bell and Elias Diaz doubled to produce three runs. Seven of the Pirates’ 10 hits went for extra bases.
“It’s not like we’re facing bad pitching all of a sudden,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’re facing quality guys. We’re not chasing. We’re using the entire field. It’s really good to see us jump some velocity and to hit some offspeed stuff as well.”
Liriano and Vazquez made big pitches with runners on base.
Liriano entered the seventh with two on and no out. He got Johan Camargo to ground into an around-the-horn double play and Ronald Acuna Jr. to fly out to right field.
Vazquez got the last out in the eighth and struck out Dansby Swanson with the bases loaded to end the game.
“You saw a perfect example of a veteran guy with a slow heartbeat, making a good pitch to a dangerous hitter,” Hurdle said of Liriano. “Another strong day off the mound for us.
“They know what’s at stake, and they know what they can do and what they need to do, and they went out there and took care of it for us.”
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Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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