How Steven Brault's complete trust in Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings led to a complete game

Steven Brault wanted to throw instead of thinking, so the Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander skipped the scouting report, decided not to shake off any signs and placed total trust in catcher Jacob Stallings.

“We decided before the game that I wasn’t going to shake. I wasn’t going to think. I was just going to be a freaking throwing machine,” said Brault, who threw a career-high 110 pitches. “So it worked out.”

Nine innings later, Brault had tossed the first complete game of his major league career, a two-hitter in a 5-1 victory Thursday night at PNC Park that saw the St. Louis Cardinals swinging and missing at a pitch that isn’t his preference.

Facing a lineup with seven right-handed hitters, Brault relied less on his go-to fastball and mixed a changeup that got swing-and-miss action and kept the Cardinals guessing in a performance Pirates manager Derek Shelton simply called “outstanding.”

A curtain call worthy performance by @SquidBrault. pic.twitter.com/klpVW3ohvu

— Pirates (@Pirates) September 18, 2020

It was the first victory for Brault (1-3) since a 6-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 1, 2019 at Coors Field, when he threw 69 consecutive fastballs on 82 pitches. That was a string of nine starts without a win, though a few were pitched in piggyback earlier this season with Chad Kuhl as Brault was building back up from a shoulder injury.

Brault’s focus on his mechanics led to wild inconsistency. After throwing three perfect innings at the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 2, he couldn’t get an out against the Detroit Tigers. He allowed four runs on three hits and three walks against six batters.

So, after a four-inning outing at Kansas City, Brault conferred with Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin and decided to just throw and have fun, a self-described “freaking throwing machine.” That’s a nod to his self-deprecating humor, one of the quirks that endears Brault to his teammates and coaches.

“To be honest, he kind of came in with that mindset,” Stallings said. “We didn’t even go over the lineup before the game. He said he was just going to trust me.”

Brault knew he was in good hands with Stallings, who cleared waivers after being designated for assignment early last season before winning the starting job. Stallings has become so adept at calling and framing pitches that Shelton has advocated for him to win the Gold Glove, and his handling of Brault’s complete game made for a strong case.

“His mentality was attack the hitter, try to get an out with every pitch, not attack, not try to set anybody up. Just trying to focus on every pitch. Trying to get an out on that pitch,” Stallings said. “I said, ‘All right, sounds good.’ We just kind of went from there. He didn’t shake the whole night until I gave two dummy shakes in the ninth. Just a lot of fun.”

The changeup came when Brault saw his slider wasn’t getting to the back foot the way he wanted to. Stallings saw the same thing Brault did. With Brault’s reputation for throwing fastballs no secret, Stallings knew Brault’s changeup has the same spin as his two-seamer.

“That’s a pitch that’s gotten a lot better for Steven this year,” Stallings said. “It’s just you see two-seam spin and it starts to slow down, and then it’s a changeup and it’s got a lot of depth to it. It was definitely on.”

When Brault threw the changeup for strikes consistently, getting whiffs or weak contact, Stallings kept calling for the pitch. And Brault kept throwing it, getting swings and misses 10 times on 34 changeups.

“He just kept putting it down, and I wasn’t shaking, so it was Stalls,” Brault said, calling Stallings by his nickname. “It wasn’t me. Thanks, Stalls.”

Stallings helped Brault’s cause with an RBI double to score Kevin Newman in the fourth inning, adding an insurance run after Gregory Polanco’s three-run homer gave the Pirates the lead.

Brault retired the final 16 batters, striking out the Cardinals’ top two hitters, Paul DeJong and Paul Goldschmidt, to end the game. Stallings was the first to congratulate Brault, before he was mobbed by his teammates in celebration of snapping an eight-game losing streak.

Talk about your changeups.

“They obviously stacked the lineup with seven righties, so that was going to be a big pitch,” Stallings said. “It was almost like there in the eighth and ninth inning I was throwing dummy fastballs just to get back to the changeup. He was obviously phenomenal. That’s the most excited I’ve been on a baseball field in quite awhile. Almost felt like I threw a complete game. It was fun. Team needed it. Couldn’t be happier for Steven, for sure.”