PITTSBURGH – After back-to-back rough starts in which he allowed seven runs in each, Andrew Heaney zeroed in on some mechanics that needed to be tuned up during his last bullpen session. The left-hander felt better after that side session, but it wasn’t all the way there. It wasn’t completely comfortable, or "rhythmic,” as he put it.
It started to feel a little better when Heaney was warming up Monday, so he tried to take that into the game. Safe to say, he did.
Heaney pounded fastballs all night, especially up and to his pitching hand side, and the Cardinals could do little about it. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and finished with 6 2/3 scoreless innings, getting back on track amid another Pirates offensive explosion as they won, 7-0, at PNC Park on Monday night.
“[It] just felt like the ball was going in the direction that I was trying to get it to go to,” Heaney said. “Makes it a little bit easier to work [both] sides of the plate. Everything's a little bit more through the zone.”
After a rough first two months of the season, the Pirates played winning baseball in June, going 14-13. They’re also the hottest team in the Major Leagues of late, winning each of their past four contests by at least seven runs. It’s the first time a Bucs team has done that since Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1925.
“We’re hitting good, we’re pitching good and we’re playing good defense,” said Spencer Horwitz, who drove in three runs from the leadoff spot. “We’re playing really good baseball, and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Zeroing in on what Heaney tweaked or focused on is probably a fool’s errand because he throws so many different looks and arm angles when on the mound. Deception is part of his game. It’s not worth missing the forest for the trees, though, because his fastballs graded better all night.
Heaney’s sinker normally averages 31 inches of vertical movement. On Monday, he was getting 34 inches.
During his pregame availability, manager Don Kelly talked about how Heaney’s fastball command hadn’t been as sharp of late and how he needs it to set up his changeup and curve. Heaney was able to pound the upper-left quadrant (from his vantage point), setting up four strikeouts with his fastballs (plus plenty of weakly hit quick outs) and three with his offspeed and breaking stuff.
Heaney allowed three hits and one walk in what was his second-longest start of the season.
“I mean, what a start by him,” Kelly said. “We needed it. The bullpen has been taxed. To go that deep into the game and, shoot, carry the no-hitter into the sixth inning, phenomenal start."
Heaney started his night with a walk to Brendan Donovan, but he quickly erased that by getting Masyn Winn to ground into a double play. Winn’s ground ball began a streak of 16 straight outs by Heaney, who lost his no-hit bit with two outs in the sixth when Victor Scott II lined a single to left.
By that point, the Pirates were comfortably out in front. Horwitz’s first swing resulted in a home run to right-center, and he launched a two-run double to begin a six-run fifth inning. Nick Gonzales had an RBI double in that frame, followed by a two-run single from Ke’Bryan Hayes and an RBI single by Tommy Pham. It was the sixth straight game Pham drove in a run.
The old adage goes that hitting is contagious. Kelly thinks the same goes for starting pitching. When both are clicking, like they have been recently for the Pirates, it’s shown to yield good results.
“I think they go hand in hand,” Horwitz said. “We get to hit when we have quick innings on defense and hit with a lead; that’s great for us. And when they get to pitch with a lead, I’m sure they [the pitchers] enjoy it as well.”