Gregory Polanco's homer, Steven Brault's complete game help Pirates snap losing streak - TribLIVE

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Despite striking out at an alarming rate and owning one of the worst batting averages in baseball, Gregory Polanco received a vote of confidence this week from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

General manager Ben Cherington cited Polanco’s hard contact as an encouraging sign, and field manager Derek Shelton was enthused about the right fielder’s engagement and work ethic through his slump. Shelton went so far as to say that Polanco is “going to be a big part of our club next year.”

Polanco rewarded their faith with a three-run homer to spark the Pirates to a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night at PNC Park, emphatically snapping an eight-game losing streak.

“It feels good to hit the ball. It’s been a struggle. It’s been hard for me to hit the ball lately – I mean, the whole season, obviously,” said Polanco, who went 2 for 4 and also had a double. “Anytime I catch one and I can hit the ball on the barrel, it feels really good, man. Because that’s me. That’s who I am.”

The Pirates also got the quality start they were seeking, as Steven Brault (1-3) tossed his first career complete game. The left-hander threw a two-hitter, with two walks and eight strikeouts on 110 pitches, for the first complete game by a Pirates pitcher since Jameson Taillon went the distance in a 10-2 win at Colorado on Aug. 7, 2018. Brault is the first Pirates southpaw to throw a complete game since Paul Maholm in 2010.

“I had never done that, a nine-inning complete game in pro ball,” Brault said. “So it was pretty cool to get it against the Cardinals, who have historically and honestly done pretty well against me. It’s a lot of fun.”

Brault wanted to pitch fast and attack the strike zone, relying less heavily on his fastball by mixing the changeup, allowing catcher Jacob Stallings to call the pitches.

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

Brault surrendered his only run in the third, on Edman’s single to left-center that scored Rangel Ravelo for a 1-0 Cardinals lead. After walking Brad Miller in the fourth, Brault retired the final 16 batters he faced. He finished the game by retiring the top of the order, getting Tommy Edman to ground out to third and striking out Paul DeJong and Paul Goldschmidt to end the game.

Despite throwing 96 pitches through eight innings, Brault wanted to finish the game. So he avoided Shelton in the dugout and stuck to the game plan until the end.

“I purposely never went anywhere near Shelty, just so I didn’t tempt him to even think about wanting to take me out,” Brault said. “It’s little mind games, like, when you’re on the sideline in football and you kind of go stand by the coach, trying to crane your head so he’ll see you and you can go in. It’s kind of the opposite — avoid him, so he doesn’t call on me in class and trying to take me out.”

The Cardinals weren’t so fortunate, as starter Dakota Hudson left after the second inning with right elbow tightness. Austin Gomber replaced Hudson for the third, the first of five relievers for St. Louis.

The Pirates got to Gomber in the fourth as Colin Moran and Josh Bell started the inning by drawing back-to-back walks. After Gomber struck out Erik Gonzalez swinging and Bryan Reynolds on a called third strike, Polanco came to the plate with two outs and two runners on base.

Entering the game, Polanco had a .135 batting average in 138 plate appearances — not enough to qualify for the league leaders, where he would have ranked last in the majors — and a team-high 57 strikeouts.

When Polanco made contact, he was hitting balls hard. And he proved it by belting a 2-2 slider 407 feet with an exit velocity of 109.3 mph to right-center for his sixth homer of the season and first since Aug. 30. In the 16 games since, Polanco had batted .157 (8 for 51) with three doubles and three RBIs while striking out 22 times and walking once.

“We’ve seen him when he’s hit the ball really hard,” Shelton said, adding that Polanco just missed on another homer to center in the eighth. “There just needs to be more contact. I thought his swings were really good.”

Kevin Newman followed with a single and scored on a Jacob Stallings double to right for a 4-1 lead.

Ke’Bryan Hayes started the fifth with a double to the right-center gap off Tyler Webb, reached third on Moran’s grounder to third that Tommy Edman mishandled and scored on Bell’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-1.

That was all the support Brault needed, and maybe just what Polanco needed.

Afterward, Polance said he wasn’t aware of Shelton’s public backing but loved that his manager believes in him.

“I didn’t know that he mentioned that,” Polanco said. “But, obviously, that makes me feel happy. I love that man, man. He gives me so much confidence and every day says, ‘Hey, you’re going to be good, you’re going to be good, keep working hard.’ He sees how hard I’m working no matter what and says, ‘Hey, you’re OK, you’re going to be OK.’ I’m just happy, man, to be here, for real. I’m going to keep working no matter what. Like I always say, no matter what result, no matter how struggling I am, I’m going to keep working. I won’t drop my head. I’m going to keep my head up and keep fighting every at-bat, every pitch and every game I’ll be there.”

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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