PITTSBURGH _ Trevor Williams pitched seven scoreless innings, Jordy Mercer and Starling Marte homered, and the Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1, at PNC Park on Sunday.
Williams has shut out his opponents in two of his past three starts. He threw eight scoreless innings July 23 opposite Los Angeles Dodgers starter Rich Hill's nine innings of no-hit ball, then allowed two runs in five innings against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 28. In those three starts he has a 0.90 ERA (two earned runs in 20 innings) and lowered his season ERA from 4.71 to 4.14.
Williams entered the rotation when Jameson Taillon had surgery to address testicular cancer and remained in it when the Pirates demoted Tyler Glasnow. He has started 22 games and pitched 134 2/3 innings. After losing out on a rotation spot in spring training, he earned a spot in the Opening-Day bullpen.
The Pirates will once again have several options for their rotation next year. Everyone from this season's Opening-Day rotation _ Taillon, Glasnow, Gerrit Cole, Ivan Nova and Chad Kuhl _ remains under contract. The Pirates also have Williams, Steven Brault and Nick Kingham, who will be out of options next year.
"As we sit here on paper, we have really good starting pitching depth," general manager Neal Huntington said. "The second you move some of that really good starting pitching depth, there's an injury or two or poor performance, then all of a sudden you need starting pitching. We're going to continue to work to add to this depth."
The Pirates have been lucky to use only six starting pitchers this season. That will increase to seven when Brault starts Tuesday.
Mercer's third-inning solo home run was the only hit the Pirates had against Reds starter Sal Romano for five innings. They got another one against him in the sixth on Jordan Luplow's RBI single. Mercer now has 13 home runs, a career high.
Marte hit his fifth homer against Tim Adleman in the seventh. The Pirates have hit a home run in 14 of their past 17 games.
The Pirates took two of three from the Reds and held them scoreless in each of the final two games. The Chicago Cubs, who swept the Pirates in Wrigley Field this past week, begin a four-game series at PNC Park on Monday.
