Jared Triolo, Joey Bart come up big with bats as Pirates pound A's for shutout in home finale

The Pittsburgh Pirates had scored a combined total of 10 runs in their previous five games, causing manager Don Kelly to repeatedly call their inability to drive in runners the team’s Achilles’ heel.

Perhaps they were saving it for the home finale.

Spurred by Jared Triolo and Joey Bart, who combined for eight hits and six RBIs, the Pirates rolled to an 11-0 win over the Athletics on Sunday afternoon before 16,107 at PNC Park.

The Pirates completed their MLB-best 19th shutout victory of the season — and second consecutive, following a 2-0 win Saturday night — with 15 of the shutouts coming at PNC Park.

The Pirates (67-89) finished with a 44-37 home record. They drew a total home attendance of 1,525,025 this season, an average of 18,828 per game. That’s down from 1,720,361 (21,239 per game) in 2024, for an average decrease of 2,411 per game.

“We’ve played really well at home and against some really good teams, too,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “We’ve got to switch it on the road, you know? Take these home victories and the way we played at home and play that way on the road, too.

“Last road trip was tough. You go 1-5, never close to being satisfied with that. All one-run losses. You have to find a way to come away with some of those wins in the close games and to find a way to play better baseball in those games on the road and work our way back to .500 and take care of things here at PNC.”

It marked the seventh time this season that the Pirates scored 10 or more runs. They are off Monday, then finish the season with a six-game road trip to Cincinnati and Atlanta.

After Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft combined for 12 strikeouts without a walk in eight scoreless innings Saturday night, the Pirates got another strong tandem pitching performance. Mike Burrows and Carmen Mlodzinski combined for six strikeouts without a walk over seven scoreless innings.

“They’re elite,” said Bart, who was behind the plate. “(Brent) Rooker came up to me one of the at-bats and said, ‘Just another guy throwing 98 for you guys.’ So, obviously, they’re feeling it. But they threw strikes. I think that’s the plan. They put the pressure on the guys and no walks. Unbelievable. I mean, if you can’t walk anybody, you really help your chances out. So hats off to them.”

Triolo and Bart both went 4 for 4 with a home run, a double and three RBIs as the Pirates went 6 for 12 with runners in scoring position and scored 10 runs in the first five innings.

With two outs in the first, Bryan Reynolds singled to center, advanced to second when Spencer Horwitz drew a walk and scored on Andrew McCutchen’s single to right for a 1-0 lead. With runners on first and third, Nick Gonzales doubled to right to drive in Horwitz to make it 2-0.

The Pirates doubled their lead in the second, when Nick Yorke reached on a forceout and Triolo sent Mitch Spence’s 0-1 sinker 402 feet to left-center for his seventh home run.

They continued their offensive outburst in the fourth. Bart singled, Yorke doubled and Oneil Cruz drove in both with a single to right that was misplayed for an error by Carlos Cortes to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead. Triolo singled to center to score Cruz for a seven-run advantage.

The Pirates reached double digits in the fifth, when McCutchen drew a leadoff walk, Jack Suwinski hit a book-rule double to the North Side Notch and Bart hit a three-run bomb off Osvaldo Bido that had a 108.6 mph exit velocity and traveled 420 feet to left to make it 10-0.

In the eighth, Triolo doubled to right off Scott McGough, advanced to third on Alexander Canario’s single and scored on a Horwitz groundout to make it 11-0.

“You always want to end on a good note at home,” McCutchen said. “It’s good for us to go out and end it in the fashion that we did. It was an all-around good day.”