Trevor Williams does it all in 5-0 Pirate win

Trevor Williams expanded his skill set beyond pitching and twittering, leading the Pirates on offense and on the mound in a 5-0 win over a bumbling Cincinnati team.

Williams was in command throughout an 80-pitch, six-inning outing, allowing just three hits and a walk, while fanning six. The Reds didn’t get a runner past first against him until they put two on with two out in his last inning. Williams ended that threat by striking out Yasiel Puig.

But that wasn’t all. Williams drove in runs in the second and third innings, stretching the Pirates’ lead to 3-0. In the second, he brought in Melky Cabrera with a cue-shot single past first. In the third, he drew a bases-loaded walk.

Apart from Williams, the Pirates’ offense mostly stranded runners for seven innings. They did get a first-inning lead when Josh Bell lined a single to center to score Starling Marte, who’d reached on an error and stolen second. In the second inning, following Williams’ single they loaded the bases with one out. Corey Dickerson, though, chased a first-pitch changeup and grounded into a 1-2-3 double play. The Pirates left ‘em loaded again in the third. In the fifth, they put runners on the corners with one out, but Erik Gonzalez popped up and Williams finally failed to come through. (Gonzalez failed in another first-and-third, one out situation in the top of the ninth.)

The hitters finally padded the lead in the eighth. Marte doubled in Adam Frazier, who’d reached on a bunt, then went to third on a bad pickoff throw and scored on a grounder. That made it 5-0.

Williams left after six with the score still 3-0. Joe Musgrove, with his start washed out, replaced him and breezed through the seventh and eighth. In the ninth, a wild Felipe Vázquez managed to get only two outs, leaving with two on for Kela Keone. He fanned Matt Kemp to put the Pirates in the win column.