Last-place Pirates finish a 6-0 homestand by shutting out Cardinals in 3 straight games

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pirates didn't look like a last-place team during a 6-0 homestand in which they outscored the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals by 43-4.

“It was special,” shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa said after a 5-0 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday. "These aren’t just wins. These are dominating wins. It’s nice. You build off the confidence of domination of home. It’s hard not to feed off that.”

Despite their season-high six-game winning streak, the Pirates are 38-50 — including 26-24 since Don Kelly was promoted from bench coach on May 8 after manager Derek Shelton was fired.

Pittsburgh was 14 games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs entering play on Wednesday. The Pirates became the first big league team since at least 1901 to score 43 runs or more and allow four runs or fewer in a six-game span. It was their first perfect homestand of six or more games since the Pirates were 7-0 against the Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers from June 28 to July 4, 2004.

The Pirates hadn't pitched three straight shutouts since June 14-16, 2015, and hadn't accomplished the feat against one team in a series since Oct. 2-3, 1976, also against the Cardinals.

Mitch Keller, Dennis Santana and Isaac Mattson combined on a six-hitter.

“It’s just a testament to how hard we’re working and the scouting that we’re going through,” said Keller, who allowed five hits in seven innings. “We just have a really good plan going in, which I think gives confidence to everybody when they know what the plan is, and when we execute it, it works.”

St. Louis hadn't been shut out in three consecutive games since Sept. 18-21, 2022, against Cincinnati and San Diego.

“The starting rotation has been phenomenal,” Kelly said. “And then the guys in the ’pen did such a great job in such a tough stretch, too, against quality teams.”

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