PITTSBURGH _ Once the baseball popped in catcher Francisco Cervelli mitt and the home-plate umpire signaled strike three, Trevor Williams stalked off the pitcher's mound and roared. The Pirates rookie right-hander had pumped a fastball past the Detroit Tigers' Nick Castellanos on the 107th pitch of his best start in the majors. To think he was once traded for a pitching instructor.
A pitchers' duel broke out Monday night at PNC Park, and the Pirates prevailed 3-0 after Williams, making a Major League minimum salary, spun a one-hit gem over seven scoreless innings and Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann, owed $18 million this season and $74 million over the next three years, blinked and watched John Jaso's pinch-hit homer put the game away.
Williams walked two, struck out five and spent a career-high 107 pitches. The only hit he gave up was James McCann's leadoff single in the third inning. He became the first Pirates rookie to throw seven-plus scoreless innings with one hit or none since Randy Kramer May 16, 1989.
Williams wasn't supposed to be a staple in the Pirates rotation this season. He found his way onto the opening-day roster as a long reliever and only joined the rotation when right-hander Jameson Taillon went on the disabled list after having surgery for testicular cancer. In his first start, Williams was rocked, allowing eight runs, six earned, in three innings in Los Angeles.
In 16 starts since his forgettable introduction to the rotation, Williams has a 3.56 ERA and has allowed more than three earned runs only twice. Offering reliability, he has built trust.
Right-hander George Kontos, the newest Pirates reliever, worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning in his first appearance for the Pirates. With closer Felipe Rivero unavailable after throwing 41 pitches Sunday, right-hander Juan Nicasio turned in a perfect ninth and earned his second save.
Zimmermann, the veteran Tigers starter, was charged with three runs on five hits and three walks in seven innings. He was only a step behind Williams for most of the night, falling closely behind when the Pirates drew first blood in the second inning.
After Gregory Polanco was clipped with a slider from starter Jordan Zimmermann, Francisco Cervelli worked a full count with two outs. He fouled off two pitches, one hard and one soft, so Zimmermann tested him by curling a slider on the outer edge of the plate. Cervelli went with the pitch and drove it up the right-center gap for a double, scoring Polanco from first base.
The double pushed Cervelli's RBI counter this season to 31, two shy of 2016 total.
For the 21,651 in attendance, offense was scarce. Neither team recorded a hit in the fourth, fifth or sixth innings, though Andrew McCutchen did provide a dash of energy with a diving catch on Mikie Mahtook's sinking line drive in the fifth inning.
In the seventh, with Williams' pitch count climbing over 100, the defense had his back. After Andrew Romine walked leading off, David Freese fielded Justin Upton's hard grounder, spun and nearly pulled off an improbable double play. Upton beat the throw by a hair. Sean Rodriguez snared Miguel Cabrera's smash. Williams caught Castellanos looking for the third out.
Williams had handled himself well at the plate, lining out to right field and walking in his two at-bats, but in the seventh manager Clint Hurdle made a rather typical decision to pinch-hit for Williams. At first, Adam Frazier was on deck. But it was Jaso who strode to the plate.
The at-bat was a head-scratcher. Zimmermann started with five consecutive curveballs, then missed with a fastball to run the count full. He came back with a curveball, and Jaso smashed it to right-field for his eighth home run this season, three of which came in pinch-hit fashion. Jaso hadn't homered since July 2, and since then he was 2 for 43 with no extra-base hits.
