Carmen Mlodzinski leads Pirates to shutout win against Nationals

Colin Beazley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Apr 15, 2026

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — In Tuesday’s loss, a gamble from Don Kelly backfired. In a win Wednesday at PNC Park, a different Kelly strategy worked to perfection.

Kelly used Mason Montgomery as an opener for Carmen Mlodzinsk, then Montgomery, Mlodzinski, Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana combined for nine shutout innings in the Pirates’ 2-0 win against the Washington Nationals. The four pitchers combined to allow just three hits.

It’s the Pirates’ second shutout win of the season. They led the majors with 19 in 2025.

The Nationals’ lineup is lefty-heavy, so Kelly elected to have the left-handed Montgomery start the game and face dangerous lefties James Wood and Daylen Lile. It worked for a scoreless first inning (albeit with a double to right-handed Curtis Mead), then Mlodzinski took over and threw six scoreless frames.

With the strategy, Mlodzinski only had to face Wood, Lile and the Nationals’ top of the order twice.

But the ploy wouldn’t have mattered if Mlodzinski hadn’t executed, and he turned in his best outing of the young season. In his six innings, he allowed just two hits, two walks and a hit batter. He struck out five. He heavily leaned on his splitter, throwing it for 34 of his 81 pitches (42% of the time), and used it more and more as the game developed.

And when the top of the order came up in the eighth, Kelly could turn to Soto against the lefties, then Santana to finish it out.

It was over when …

... Santana hit CJ Abrams, who went 1 for 1 but reached base all four times with two hit by pitches and a walk. But as rain began to fall, Santana got Drew Millas to fly out to Billy Cook in right field to preserve the win and the shutout.

On the mound

Since 1961, just six Pirate relievers have thrown six or more scoreless innings with two or fewer hits in a game. Mlodzinski was the first since Bob Johnson in 1972.

Mlodzinski was also the first to throw six or more scoreless innings in relief since Steve Cooke on Sept. 21, 1992.

At the plate

The Pirates scored both of their runs with two outs in the top of the first. Bryan Reynolds walked against Nationals starter Jake Irvin, followed by a single from Ryan O’Hearn. Marcell Ozuna singled down the right-field line, scoring Reynolds, then Nick Gonzales beat out a routine grounder to short to score O’Hearn from third. After Spencer Horwitz was hit by a pitch, Nick Yorke grounded out to strand the bases loaded.

O’Hearn went 3 for 4 with three singles. Ozuna has a hit in three consecutive games.

Most valuable player

Mlodzinski was dominant. His ERA is down to 1.77 this season.

Up next

The Pirates and Nationals conclude their four-game series on Thursday at 12:35 p.m. ET. Left-hander Foster Griffin (2-0, 1.76 ERA) will start against right-hander Braxton Ashcraft (1-1, 2.12).

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