PITTSBURGH -- On Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, Merrill Kelly showed his short seven-walk performance against the Cubs last week was a fluke, not the norm.

Kelly pitched seven solid frames against the Pirates at PNC Park, and his offense gave him plenty of cushion during an 11-2 win over the Pirates.

On a windy Friday at Wrigley Field last week, Kelly labored for 109 pitches over only 3 2/3 frames, but he needed just 106 pitches to get through seven strong innings in Pittsburgh. The lone blemishes on his line were two solo homers -- one on a hanging curveball to Josh Bell in the fourth, and another in the sixth to Jung Ho Kang, a fellow Korean Baseball Organization alum.

So what things figured into such a drastic improvement?

Working from behind vs. pounding the zone

When Kelly fell behind to Cubs’ batters, it was a real struggle. His first offering generally hit the zone -- 15 first-pitch strikes to nine walks -- but that didn’t translate extended success during at-bats.

No count was more detrimental to his night than the 3-1 count. All five pitches he threw in those situations turned into walks.

Against the Pirates, Kelly struggled more with first pitches, converting less than half of those offerings to strikes. But he worked from behind 3-1 just twice on Wednesday, with Kang’s homer off one of those offerings, a middle-cut sinker.

“After the Chicago game, I made that a priority; to throw as many strikes as I could,” Kelly said. “I still think I could have done a better job of it, especially early in the count and getting strike one, but overall, I’m happy with it.”

Fastball command

One of the calling cards for Kelly is his five-pitch mix, an arsenal he digs into consistently, as he’s thrown each pitch at least 10 percent of the time in his outings. Yet it was his four-seamer that proved most lethal against the Pirates.

Kelly caught the Bucs looking at his heater 12 times and drew five whiffs across 37 offerings of the pitch. The Cubs swung and missed twice and watched it five times, but fouled the pitch off eight times to get other looks that often missed the zone or that they squared up for hits.

Kelly said a big reason for his reliance on the fastball was the offense behind him, sparked by Ketel Marte’s two-homer, four-RBI day.

“Any time the offense puts runs on the board, it just allows you to be a little more aggressive in the zone, throw some more fastballs with the risk of the solo home runs like I did tonight, but I knew they weren’t going to hurt me,” Kelly said.

Balls in play vs. foul balls

In Chicago, foul balls were Kelly’s nemesis. The Cubs tagged him for 21 foul balls, helping drive up the pitch count of a pitcher struggling to get a feel for his command.

His foul count was trimmed to eight in Pittsburgh, but that spelled a spike in balls in play, from 12 to 22. In an age of K rate and whiff focus, isn’t that a bad thing? Maybe not when you pitch for Arizona.

The D-backs have been great with the gloves. Entering Wednesday, the 162 Defensive Runs Saved mark they’ve posted since 2018 leads baseball’s next closest team by 46 (Brewers, 116). A contact pitcher’s best friend can be his shortstop, and Nick Ahmed has been touted as one of the strongest defensive shortstops in the game; though he lacks the range of, say, Andrelton Simmons, his 26 DRS is the league’s best since 2018.

And though Kelly drew eyes earlier this season with a 9-K performance against the defending champion Red Sox, he knows that a whiff-heavy approach isn’t something his game is geared toward.

“That’s kind of how I pitch. I pitch to contact,” Kelly said. “I didn’t do a great job of it in Chicago, but did a little bit better today. It just makes my job a lot more at ease, just knowing that if I do pitch to contact, it’s probably going to be caught.”

“That’s the piece of the puzzle that’s always going to be there behind him,” Lovullo said. “We believe in guys playing on both sides of the baseball, and when we have a pitcher that’s going after it and pitching to contact, which we believe in, they’re going to be ready to go.”

Injury notes

• Taijuan Walker, recovering from Tommy John surgery in April 2018, threw a 30-pitch simulated game on Tuesday and Lovullo said Walker was "really encouraged" by results.

• Alex Avila (left quad strain) caught Walker’s simulated game and Lovullo said he’s progressing in his rehab to plan.

• TJ McFarland (left shoulder inflammation) is slated to pitch multiple innings Thursday with Triple-A Reno against the Fresno Grizzlies.