Rangers bullpen shuts down Pirates, who drop another 1-run game for 7th loss in past 9

For a fleeting moment, the Pittsburgh Pirates looked like they had a chance to tie the score in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers when Henry Davis drilled a ball 393 feet to center field.

The ball landed in Evan Carter’s glove at the warning track, and the symbolism wasn’t lost: It came up short, just like the Pirates.

Chris Martin survived that scare, then got Ke’Bryan Hayes looking at called third strike as the Rangers retired the final 10 Pirates batters to hold on for a 3-2 win Saturday afternoon before 23,819 at PNC Park.

“Great at-bat there. I mean, to be able to square that up, off the bat you knew it was going to be close,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “Unfortunately, just a little bit short.”

It marked the 20th one-run game in Kelly’s 40-game tenure as Pirates manager, the 11th that ended in a loss.

Pirates starter Mitch Keller (1-10) took the loss, despite allowing only two earned runs on three hits and two walks with five strikeouts over 5²⁄₃ innings. Keller won 10 games in the first half last year, only to hit double-digit losses before July this season. Kelly said “it would be natural” for Keller to get frustrated.

“Trying to keep him up and keep him focused on the way he’s pitching and how well he’s pitched and how many opportunities he’s given us to win the baseball game, I’m trying to talk to him about that and keep him positive on that,” Kelly said. “There’s some really good things with him. You cannot look at the record and let that drag you down because he’s pitched much, much better than 1-10.”

Yet the Pirates haven’t provided run support for Keller. It marked his ninth consecutive start in which they failed to score more than two runs, and the ninth time in his 16 starts the Pirates had a game decided by one run. They are 3-6 in such games with Keller on the mound.

“Everybody in there would love to put up 10 for him and for all of our starters,” Kelly said. “We need to find a way to keep grinding and push more runs across to get a win.”

The Pirates had their chances but went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, leaving six runners on base. They stranded two runners in the sixth when Hayes popped out to second for the final out.

Kumar Rocker (3-4) got the win for the Rangers, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks with four strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Martin earned his second save.

For the second consecutive game, the Pirates committed a costly fielding error in the outfield in the first inning that allowed a run to score.

Ezequiel Duran worked eight pitches for a full-count walk to start the third inning, setting the stage for another self-inflicted error. Kyle Higashioka lined a single to left field that bounced under the glove of Adam Frazier and rolled to the warning track, allowing Duran to score from first to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.

“He got a little bit too close to it,” Kelly said, “and couldn’t make the play.”

Rocker retired nine consecutive batters before the Pirates tied it in the fifth inning. Davis led off with a single to center, advanced to second on a single by Hayes and to third on a sacrifice by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Oneil Cruz battled back from an 0-2 count for a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Davis and make it 1-1.

The Rangers responded in the sixth, which started with Josh Smith hitting a one-out single and Sam Haggerty drawing a four-pitch walk as Keller showed fatigue in the 85-degree heat.

After a mound visit, Corey Seager smacked a four-seamer for a single to right to score Smith for a 2-1 lead and move Haggerty to third. Marcus Semien followed with a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Haggerty to make it 3-1, and Keller’s day was done.

“I thought I started off great, then the single and four-pitch walk just leads to bad things happening,” Keller said. “If I could do that sixth inning over again, I would. Just be a little bit more aggressive on the four-pitch walk. I thought that was the turning point in the game.”

Carmen Mlodzinski got Adolis Garcia to ground into a forceout at second to end the frame, and the Pirates got to Rocker in the bottom of the inning. After Spencer Horwitz battled through a nine-pitch at-bat to work a one-out walk and Nick Gonzales drew a four-pitch walk, the Rangers brought in Shawn Armstrong. He hit Frazier with a pitch to load the bases, and Davis drove in Horwitz with a grounder to third to cut the Rangers’ lead to 3-2. But Hayes popped up to second to end the inning, stranding a pair of runners.

“We need to find a way to score some runs,” Kelly said. “We just have to find a way. We’ve got to find a way to come through with guys on base. We had some early baserunners, and we just need to come up with that big hit.”

After Mlodzinski walked Seager and Semien to start the ninth, he was replaced by Dennis Santana. Both runners advanced on Garcia’s flyout to right, but Seager was caught between third and home on Evan Carter’s fielder’s choice and Santana got Duran to fly out to center.

But the Pirates wasted another strong start by Keller and lost another close game, both of which are becoming recurring themes for their season.

“If we’re playing in close games, that means we’re right there,” Keller said. “Just got to find a way to win, whether that’s myself, bullpen, defense, hitting. Collectively as a group, we’ve just got to figure out how we’re going to scratch across a couple more runs or one more run to make the difference in those games. I think that’s the turning point of good teams, of winning teams, is winning those one-run games and we’re kind of on the other side of it. We’ve got to figure it out.”