'It saved us a ton': Lefty Bailey Falter pitches 6 innings in relief to earn 1st win with Pirates

When Bailey Falter found out the Pittsburgh Pirates were using Thomas Hatch as an opener Monday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, the left-handed pitcher had no idea he would be finishing the game.

“They didn’t give me much more information than that,” Falter said of manager Derek Shelton and pitching coach Oscar Marin. “Oscar and Skip said they felt like this would be the best fit for me so that’s what they went with, and I couldn’t agree more. My job is to go out there and get outs until they take the ball out of my hand — it doesn’t matter if it’s starting, relieving, closing.”

Falter has now done all three for the Pirates since being acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade for infielder Rodolfo Castro at the 11th hour of the MLB trade deadline. Falter pitched six innings in relief for the first time in his career in the 11-1 win over the Cardinals.

It was both his first win of the season and his first in four appearances for the Pirates.

“It feels really good. I was just praying that I was going to get one this year,” said Falter, who was 0-7 with a 5.13 ERA and 1.44 WHIP for the Phillies. “It’s crazy, but baseball works in funny ways.”

Falter gave up one run on three hits and two walks and finished with eight strikeouts, tying his career best that was set with the Phillies in a 4-2 win over the Pirates on July 29, 2022. Falter said he wasn’t feeling well when he awoke, so he focused on grinding through the game.

“I was just trying my hardest to keep the bullpen out of it for the rest of the game, so I thought it went pretty well,” Falter said. “I just feel like the guys have been getting a lot of work in lately. And I feel like I haven’t really been going deep into games since I’ve been here, so it was nice to pull it out for the bullpen.”

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The Pirates used an opener for the third time in four games, so Shelton showed some concern beforehand about how the bullpen games could take a toll on his relievers. Instead, Falter gave the pitching staff a much-needed blow by throwing 81 pitches (56 for strikes).

“It saved us a ton,” Shelton said. “We were hoping we’d get three or four (innings), especially with this lineup, and then offensively we just did such a good job of continuing to add on. Any time you can use just two guys, I think it’s extremely important.”

It’s an effort Falter hopes gives the Pirates confidence he can return to their rotation, which counts only Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo as starters. Falter made seven starts for the Phillies and three for the Pirates this season, going six or more innings in only two of those games.

Falter used his five-pitch mix against the Cardinals, relying primarily on his four-seam fastball that sat at 92 mph and touched 94 and generated 17 of his 29 called strikes and whiffs. He complemented the heater with a curveball against a Cardinals lineup that featured switch hitter Tommy Edman in the leadoff spot followed by eight right-handed bats.

After leaving a hanging slider over the middle of the plate for Andrew Knizner to hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, Falter struck out the next three batters. He allowed only one other extra-base hit, a double by rookie Jordan Walker in the seventh, but stranded a pair of runners.

“Falter just continued to execute on both sides of the plate,” Shelton said. “It’s the best velo we’ve seen him have, and the stuff maintained. This is the first time, and it’s not easy when you have nine right-handers in a lineup to be able to execute like that.”

It helped that the Pirates had a 4-0 lead when Falter replaced Hatch and spotted him four runs in the fourth inning and three more in the eighth. Falter gave up a leadoff single to Cardinals pinch hitter Richie Palacios in the ninth, so he was pumped when Pirates left fielder Joshua Palacios made a diving catch for the final out.

“It felt amazing to seal the deal in a game like that and get that catch, especially for Falter right there, get him out that inning,” said Joshua Palacios, who had a career-best five RBIs. “He pitched an amazing game, so I wanted to do something nice for him.”