Oneil Cruz's grand slam powers Pirates past Nationals

Oneil Cruz hit his first career grand slam and Bailey Falter threw seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the visiting Washington Nationals 6-1 on Wednesday.

Henry Davis homered and drove in two runs for Pittsburgh, and Falter (1-2) faced the minimum 21 batters. He walked one and struck out two.

Pittsburgh led 1-0 before scoring five runs during an eventful seventh inning. With runners on the corners and no outs against Jorge Lopez, Davis drove in a run with a broken-bat groundout.

After Ke'Bryan Hayes grounded out, Bryan Reynolds was hit by a pitch. The benches then cleared when Lopez threw a pitch near Andrew McCutchen's head.

Lopez was ejected and replaced by Eduardo Salazar, who walked McCutchen to load the bases. Cruz followed by belting his third homer of the season, a 385-foot shot to right field.

The Pirates broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning against Mitchell Parker (2-1) on Davis' one-out homer that hit the foul pole in left field. The solo shot was Davis' first homer of the year.

Washington was limited to one baserunner in the first four innings. James Wood hit a one-out single in the top of the first and was thrown out trying to steal second.

The Pirates loaded the bases with two outs in the second inning, but Parker escaped unscathed when Davis flied out to center field.

Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had two hits apiece for Pittsburgh, which has won two of the first three games of the four-game series.

The Nationals were stymied by Falter, who entered the game with a 7.20 ERA after first three starts. He threw 57 of his 83 pitches for strikes in the win.

Washington avoided the shutout in the ninth inning. The Nationals put two runners on with no outs against Chase Shugart, and Dylan Crews eventually scored on Alex Call's sacrifice fly.

Parker permitted one run on four hits and a walk in six innings. He fanned six.

--Field Level Media