PITTSBURGH - The Pirates’ push against Atlanta hit pause on Wednesday afternoon, with a storm system forcing a rain delay at PNC Park after five innings and the Braves holding a 6-4 lead.
The game stopped at 2:29 p.m. as thunderstorms moved into the area, and rain was already falling when Pittsburgh’s groundscrew got the tarp down quickly to protect the field. The club now has to wait for the weather to clear before play can resume.
Pittsburgh has already shown some punch at the plate, with three home runs in the game. Bryan Reynolds and Esmerlyn Valdez went back-to-back with solo shots in the third inning, and Jake Mangum added a two-run homer in the fourth.
But the Pirates have been chasing from the start, and the pitching has made the climb tougher. Mitch Keller lasted only three innings, his shortest outing of the season, and threw 72 pitches while allowing a solo homer in the first and two more runs in the third.
The bullpen didn’t settle things down, either. Cam Sanders was charged with three runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run homer from Braves shortstop Jim Jarvis, the first home run of his MLB career.
Hunter Stratton did give Pittsburgh a lift in relief, getting the Pirates out of the fourth inning and then working a scoreless fifth against his former team in Atlanta.
This is now the second straight homestand to include a rain delay for Pittsburgh. The Pirates also dealt with two delays against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27. The first pushed the second game’s first pitch back 35 minutes, from 4:05 p.m. to 4:40 p.m., and the second came in the bottom of the eighth and lasted about an hour, from 4:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
It is the third rain delay in a Pirates game this season. Pittsburgh also sat through a two-and-a-half-hour delay after the fourth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at PNC Park on April 18.
The Pirates had rain delays against the Washington Nationals on April 14 and the Reds on May 1 as well, both at PNC Park. The Nationals delay lasted 15 minutes before first pitch, while the Reds delay ran 75 minutes.
Updates on the restart time or a possible cancellation will follow if there is any change.
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