Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton has said repeatedly, as recently as Tuesday, that the club’s experiment featuring Carmen Mlodzinski as a starting pitcher will continue.

Mlodzinski had starting experience collegiately at South Carolina as well as in the minor leagues but was converted to a reliever upon reaching Double-A.

However, last season, Mlodzinski made a handful of abbreviated spot starts and to begin 2025, with Jared Jones sidelined because of injury, the 26-year-old has plugged a hole in the rotation, with more struggles than success ensuing.

“I think there’s things that we’ve liked, (but) I think there’s things and places that we also need to continue to work on, especially when you transition to being a major-league starter,” Shelton said before first pitch Wednesday at PNC Park.

Making his sixth start of the season, Mlodzinski battled the Chicago Cubs and took a no-decision, allowing a pair of runs over four innings in an eventual 4-3 win.

In the seventh inning, with men on first and second and the Pirates trailing 3-2, Andrew McCutchen hit a two-out RBI ground-ball double up the middle of the infield off Caleb Thielbar, scoring Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan Reynolds to create a 4-3 lead.

Kiner-Falefa had reached on an error, and Reynolds singled.

A three-run fifth inning had propelled the Cubs to the lead, erasing an early 2-0 advantage by the Pirates.

McCutchen’s RBI double coincided with a scary scene at PNC Park, as a fan fell off the edge of the Clemente Wall.

At 8:50 p.m., the game was paused as medical officials rushed to the fan, who remained motionless after falling onto the right-field warning track.

No immediate word was available on the fan, who was taken off the field in a cart.

This season, a familiar and unfortunate script has followed Mlodzinski to the mound.

Often sharp early, Mlodzinski’s outings have been prone to unraveling once opposing lineups face him for the second or third time.

So when Mlodzinski navigated through four scoreless frames to begin Wednesday, albeit with some hard contact (although no extra-base hits) allowed to Chicago, it remained to be seen whether he could continue being effective when he came back out to start the fifth.

After Mlodzinski (6.58 ERA) allowed two men aboard before recording an out, Shelton declined to wait and find out, ending his evening in favor of Ryan Borucki with the Pirates (12-19) in front 2-0.

But soon, Dansby Swanson (leadoff single) and Jon Berti (walk) came around to score with Borucki on the hill.

First, Borucki gave up an RBI single to Ian Happ and, following a wild pitch which bounced directly in and out of Bart’s glove that allowed Berti and Happ to advance a base, a dribbler by Kyle Tucker was enough to plate Berti, tying the score 2-2.

Before the Pirates had escaped the frame, a breaking ball in the dirt that Bart was unable to handle, which was ruled as another wild pitch on Borucki, allowed one more run to score, putting Chicago in front 3-2.

Mlodzinski allowed six hits, walking one with four strikeouts while throwing 42 of his 65 pitches for strikes.

The Pirates gave Mlodzinski an early lead, taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

Oneil Cruz, swinging on the first pitch thrown by Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, ripped a sinker 114.7 mph off the bat that hit the Clemente Wall for a leadoff double.

After a passed ball by catcher Carson Kelly advanced Cruz to third, Ke’Bryan Hayes drove him home with a bloop single into right field.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates went up 2-0 when Jared Triolo plated Joey Bart with a sacrifice fly.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong made a terrific throw home, which umpire Alfono Marquez initially ruled to have beaten Bart, who neglected to slide, for what would have been an inning-ending double play.

But a Pirates challenge overturned the call.

Following Mlodzinski and Borucki, Chase Shugart and Caleb Ferguson combined to toss three scoreless innings.

In the ninth, David Bednar came on to close the door, recording his third save of the season.

Ferguson (1-0, 1.88 ERA) was Wednesday’s winning pitcher.

Categories: Pirates/MLB | Sports