Braves dominate Pirates, who lose catcher Joey Bart, pitcher Martin Perez to injuries

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t lose just a chance to sweep the Atlanta Braves. They lost their starting battery to injuries, as catcher Joey Bart and pitcher Martin Perez were removed early in the game.

Where Bart (left thumb) left after the first inning, and Perez (left groin) didn’t return for the fourth inning, the Braves got another strong start from left-handed starter Chris Sale.

Sale recorded eight strikeouts and held the Pirates to one run in seven innings, and the Braves battered a bullpen pressed into early duty to roll to an 8-1 win Sunday afternoon before 27,416 at PNC Park.

The Pirates were forced to turn to a bullpen that endured a brutal week, blowing big leads in back-to-back losses to the San Francisco Giants and giving up five runs in the eighth inning of an 11-5 win over Atlanta on Friday.

“It’s definitely something you don’t want to do, especially because our starting pitching has been so good,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Thankfully, we’re going into an off day so we’re able to use guys and cover innings. It’s extremely hard to cover innings against that lineup. For two days we saw them stay dormant a little bit; then today we saw why they’re such a good team.”

Sale (8-1), acquired from the Boston Red Sox in late December, looked every bit the dominant pitcher who was a seven-time All-Star with six top-five finishes in Cy Young Award voting.

Sale mixed his fastball with a slider and changeup, holding the Pirates to four hits and one walk while drawing 13 whiffs and 15 called strikes on 97 pitches, lowering his ERA to 2.12 with his sixth quality start in 10 outings for Atlanta. In his last seven starts, Sale is 7-0 with a 1.17 ERA.

The Pirates had no answer for Sale.

“That’s been a question people have been asking for about 15 years,” Shelton said. “He’s a different guy than he was two or three years ago. When he first came up to the big leagues, it was 98-100 with a 91 mph slider. Now he still goes out and gets 97. The thing that’s so challenging is he throws the fastball in to right-handed hitters and he tunnels the slider right off it. He’s been on a stretch where he hadn’t given up a run in, I think, four starts. Today, the slider was elite. That’s why this guy’s been so good for so long.”

Injuries, however, took a toll early on both teams.

Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., the 2023 National League MVP, started the game by smacking a leadoff double off the center field wall but his left knee buckled while attempting to break for a stolen base. Acuna limped off the field and exited the game.

“That was a little concerning for a guy that’s that talented in our game,” Shelton said of Acuna, “the way he went down.”

It didn’t help that his replacement, Jarred Kelenic, went 3 for 4 and scored three runs.

Edward Olivares worked an eight-pitch at-bat against Sale to start the second, before dropping a double down the left field line. Olivares advanced to third on Jared Triolo’s groundout to second and scored when Yasmani Grandal, who replaced Bart, lined a single to left to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Perez received a mound visit from Shelton and assistant trainer Tony Leo after giving up a single to Kelenic with one out in the third. After a few warmup pitches, Perez remained in the game. But Ozzie Albies doubled to right to drive in Kelenic for the game-tying run, then was thrown out while trying to take third on the throw to home plate.

“When he covered first it looked like it caught and then he threw a couple pitches and he was fine,” Shelton said. “Then the next two or three pitches he threw, the velo clicked way down. So watching him that was going to be his last hitter either way.”

The Pirates replaced Perez with righty Carmen Mlodzinski (0-2), who gave up a leadoff double down the right field line to Travis d’Arnaud, who scored on Orlando Arcia’s sacrifice fly to left to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.

“Honestly, in those situations, the challenge of getting ready is covered by adrenaline just because things happen quick and you have to get ready quick so your body just kind of takes over,” Mlodzinski said. “It’s not so much about physically getting ready but definitely is more about mentally being able to lock in and understand, what is the expectation and how many innings are you going to have to cover to be able to fill in what was lost with the starter going out.”

The Braves stretched their lead to 4-1 in the fifth on Matt Olson’s two-run double — their fourth of the game. That provided a cushion for Sale, who retired 11 consecutive batters before giving up back-to-back, one-out singles to Bryan Reynolds and Connor Joe in the sixth before striking out Nick Gonzales and getting Olivares to pop out to first.

Lefty Aroldis Chapman continued his struggles, giving up solo home runs to Olson and Adam Duvall in the eighth. Olson blasted a 2-1 inside fastball 420 feet over the right field seats and into the Allegheny River for his eighth homer, making it the third ball to bounce into the water and 73rd in PNC Park history. Duvall smacked a 1-0 sinker 428 feet to left-center for his fourth homer and a 6-1 Braves lead.

Chapman has a 4.32 ERA and 1.92 WHIP in 10 appearances this month.

“Trying to do my best to get out of the funk that I have right now,” Chapman said through translator Stephen Morales, a Pirates coach. “Keeping my head up and keeping a positive attitude will help me a lot, like it’s helped me in the past.”

The Braves tacked on two more runs against Kyle Nicolas in the ninth to increase their lead to 8-1. Kelenic hit a leadoff double and scored on Albies’ single to right. Albies advanced to second on an Olson single, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by d’Arnaud to center, where Michael A. Taylor made a spectacular sliding catch.

Connor Joe hit a leadoff single and Triolo drew a two-out walk to put runners on first and second in the ninth, but Braves lefty Dylan Lee got Grandal to fly out to center to end the game.

Shelton was relieved that the Pirates have a day off before a two-game trip to Detroit, which will help the bullpen recover from a bad week.

“Bullpens can be very volatile at times — even the best ones,” Shelton said. “We’ve got a lot of younger kids down there. Sometimes it takes a little while to find your footing. So the fact that we have stuff down there is probably the encouraging thing.”