On Tuesday night, Pirates manager Don Kelly’s decision to have Nick Yorke pinch hit for Brandon Lowe did not pan out and was criticized externally.
Twenty-four hours later, Kelly having Mason Montgomery open for Carmen Mlodzinski worked to perfection — and served as the primary storyline in the Pirates’ 2-0 victory over the Nationals at PNC Park.
But inside the Pirates’ clubhouse, the decisions were handled the same. They were respected because, as Brandon Lowe said, that’s what good and cohesive teams do.
The Pirates obviously fashion themselves as both.
“There really is no other option,” Lowe said. “If you want to have a good clubhouse, if you want to have a good team, you have to trust your guys who are making the calls. If you start to second-guess what’s going on, that’s a cancerous attitude that leaks through the rest of the team, and it gets bad.”
It’s not exactly breaking news to say there have been decisions that have been questioned over the years here, frustration that bubbled up and players and coaches on various pages.
Cohesiveness has lacked, the same for on-field results.
But the steadiness with which the 2026 Pirates are operating has been a breath of fresh air. They’ve made mistakes, sure. All teams do. They’ve also had frustrating losses.
Outside of the first series, though, they have not lost back-to-back games, each time recalibrating appropriately and attacking the subsequent day. Perhaps there’s a reason.
It starts with a healthy respect for the process and those running the show, plus a desire to not have any cracks in the foundation.
“You put your faith in every guy in this clubhouse, including Donnie and the coach staff,” Lowe said. “You have to be 100% in each other’s corner. That’s the only way to go about it.
“If you’re not 100% bought in, there are cracks in the foundation. You can’t have any cracks.”
As for my nine observations from the game …
1. Remember the questions about Carmen Mlodzinski’s viability as a fifth starter? He’s sure been putting those to rest.
After Montgomery, Mlodzinski breezed through six scoreless frames, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out five. He threw a bunch of splitters — 42%, up from 25% on the season — and racked up nine whiffs.
Mlodzinski threw 81 pitches, 55 for strikes and probably could’ve kept going if not for Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana and how effectively that combination locks down games.
Bottom line, Mlodzinski has a 1.77 ERA and has legitimately been one of the better pitching stories in baseball this season.
“Felt good,” Mlodzinski said. “I worked pretty hard this week on fastball command. I think I’ve kind of struggled with that last few weeks. Worked on that. And in my head, everything plays off of that.”
2. It’ll be interesting to see if the Pirates employ this strategy again. It worked, too. Mlodzinski has been weaker against lefties (.813 OPS compared to .553 versus righties prior to Tuesday). And this smartly reduced the number of times he had to face them.
Meanwhile, the top four hitters in Washington’s lineup went 1 for 16 with five strikeouts. I also love how Mlodzinski took the move — essentially as a challenge to improve.
“I think it's a reality check for me,” he said. “I need to be better against left handed batters. I want to progress as a pitcher and be able to handle both sides of the plate equally.”
3. Speaking of lefties, the Pirates southpaw reliever continues to look solid. This was Montgomery’s fourth consecutive scoreless outing, where he’s walked one and struck out seven.
He’s been pounding the zone. When he does that, his stuff is so good that he’s almost unhittable. Curtis Mead doubled off Montgomery, but it hardly mattered. Seven of Montgomery’s 11 pitches went at least 97 mph. His four-seamer atop the zone to strike out Brady House was nasty.
"I think just sticking to my plan,” Montgomery said. “Even in the outings where I gave up some runs, I feel like I've done a good job not straying from my plan. Attack the zone, get ahead and then ultimately execute two-strike pitches."
4. The offense came from the fourth, fifth and sixth spots in the Pirates lineup: Ryan O’Hearn with three hits and Marcell Ozuna and Nick Gonzales with RBIs.
Nice rebound from O’Hearn after he was hitting .174 over his previous six. Ozuna deposited a two-strike fastball into right for a single. Gonzales beat out a throw to pick up an infield single and an RBI. Hey, it was enough.
5. After Mlodzinski left, Soto and Santana didn’t allow Washington to build any momentum. Soto fanned two in the eighth. Santana hit a batter but otherwise kept things quiet to earn his second save.
This dynamic is appealing, an interchangeable duo that can be flipped and flopped depending on the handedness of an opposing lineup. It also helps both have been pitching extremely well.
“That’s a credit to the pitchers, how they got after it, the way they attacked and threw strikes,” Kelly said. “Carmen had a few more in the tank, but to have Soto and Santana out there for the eighth and ninth in a two-run game … went to those guys, and they were phenomenal too.”
6. More of what I mean about the strategy working: Soto entered to face 1-2-3, the same pocket of two lefties Montgomery faced. Literally could not have worked out any better for Kelly and the Pirates.
7. This was a planned day off for Konnor Griffin. Here’s something to think about with that: Minor League seasons are funky. Six games a week. One city. Usually a DH day built in.
We knew Griffin would have to complete his development at the Major League level. The Pirates would like to give it a little more time before running him out there every day. I’ll need to see more in the way of results before vehemently disagreeing with anything.
8. Jared Jones threw a bullpen before Tuesday’s game. Zero doubt regarding his ability to pitch or his desire to get back on the mound. Jones joked with us that he’d take the mound right now if he wasn’t limited by the 60-day injured list.
“I had a pretty good bullpen [Tuesday],” Jones said. “Happy with how it went. It sucks to say, but I'm excited to get back down to Florida. Feel like getting going again. It's getting closer.”
9. The next step for Jones will likely be appearing in a game with Low-A Bradenton later this month. That and maybe a get-to-know-you lunch with pitching coach Bill Murphy.
Jones shared a funny anecdote from their time together these past few days.
“I think me and Bill are still figuring each other out,” Jones said. “I had a few choice words for a couple pitches I threw [Tuesday], and it kind of looked like he saw a ghost.”
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.