Derek Shelton made his way to the mound, punched Cody Ponce’s glove with his right fist then pounded Ponce’s chest twice in a row. With two outs in the sixth inning and nothing but zeroes on the board, Ponce had done his job.
Ponce, the rookie right-hander, worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his first Major League start and led the Pirates to a 2-0 win over the Cardinals on Thursday night, completing Pittsburgh’s doubleheader sweep at Busch Stadium.
Pittsburgh’s manager wouldn’t reveal exactly what he told the rookie right-hander, but it boiled down to something he said afterward.
“He stepped up and pitched his butt off,” Shelton said.
In one day, the Pirates put together just their second winning streak of the season. While they collected a few timely hits, it wasn’t their lineup that carried them. In fact, they swept the doubleheader without an extra-base hit in either game, the first time Pittsburgh took both games in a twin bill without an extra-base hit since July 4, 1918, against the Reds.
They owed their success on Thursday to their starting pitchers, with Chad Kuhl and Ponce picking up 35 of the 45 outs Pittsburgh’s staff recorded on the day.
“He was just very proud of me and very excited for what he saw. He was very happy that I went out there and I did my best and I pretty much saved our bullpen,” Ponce said of his conversation with Shelton. “You know we’re going to try not to get into [the bullpen] and use them on these doubleheader days, these short games, and try to save them for tomorrow against Milwaukee.”
Pittsburgh activated Ponce, acquired from Milwaukee last July in exchange for Jordan Lyles, from the traveling taxi squad and made him the club’s designated 29th man for Thursday’s action. He made a pair of relief appearances earlier this season before the Pirates optioned him back to their alternate training site, where he focused on adding to his pitch count so he was ready for spot starts like this one.
In a conversation with Minor League pitching coach Joel Hanrahan, the former big league closer, Ponce said he found the mindset he needed.
“He’s just like, ‘Hey, if this happens, are you ready?’ I kind of took every start down there, the two that I had, and kinda put it in the back of my head that, ‘You know, I’m starting a big league game today,’” Ponce said. “The nerves were definitely there when I stepped out on the bump for the first inning, including in the second, then got a little bit more comfortable after the second. I was like, ‘You know what, I’m here and I’m just going to do my best that I can right now.’”
The Bucs couldn’t have asked for much more than he gave them.
Ponce worked quickly and efficiently, pounding the strike zone with fastballs, cutters and curveballs. He struck out two and walked two and only allowed five hits, throwing 51 of his 77 pitches for strikes to earn his first Major League victory. He paired well with catcher John Ryan Murphy, who preached a simple message to Ponce.
“He was asking a lot of questions, so I think I just tried to limit the amount of thoughts in his head,” Murphy said. “Just wanted him to stay on the attack, because he was so good early. So I didn’t want him to change his gameplan in his head.”
The Pirates gave Ponce all the run support he needed in the third inning. JT Riddle walked, Murphy knocked a single to left, then Erik González drove in Riddle with another single to left. Up came Adam Frazier, who kept the line moving with an RBI single to center.
Reliever Geoff Hartlieb recorded the final out of the sixth, setting up for left-hander Nik Turley in the seventh. Turley, making only his 22nd appearance in the Majors, recorded his first big league save with a clean, 11-pitch inning. It was only his third professional save, with the other two coming for Boston’s Double-A Portland affiliate in 2016.
It’s been a long road to this point for Turley, who before this season hadn’t pitched in the Majors or Minors since 2017. It began 12 years ago, when he was the third-to-last player selected in the 50-round 2008 Draft. After bouncing around in the Minors, he finally reached the Majors with the Twins in 2017. The Pirates acquired him, but he was soon after suspended for using a performance-enhancing substance. Then he missed the rest of 2018 and all of ‘19 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Needless to say, making it back -- and getting his first save -- meant a great deal to the 30-year-old Turley.
“It’s a pretty big milestone,” Turley said. “It’s just exciting, and it felt really good. … This was pretty special. It was a good night.”
And it ended with a celebration, a rarity for the Pirates as they’ve won just nine of their first 28 games. In the same clubhouse where they doused Shelton following his first managerial victory on July 26, Pittsburgh’s players soaked Ponce and Turley to recognize a pair of firsts: a win and a save.
“I know what a beer shower feels like in St. Louis, and I think those guys got one,” Shelton said, smiling. “It’s kind of nice to see.”