PITTSBURGH (AP) — Oneil Cruz hit his first career grand slam to help Bailey Falter and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 6-1 on Wednesday night.

Henry Davis also connected for Pittsburgh, which had dropped four of five. Isiah Kiner-Falefa had two hits and scored run.

Falter (1-2) allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings. It was the 10th time this season that a Pirates starter went six innings or more — tops in the majors.

Washington wasted a sharp performance by Mitchell Parker (2-1), who tossed six innings of one-run ball. The Nationals scored their only run on Alex Call’s sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Pittsburgh jumped in front on Davis’ first homer of the season — a solo shot off the foul pole in left in the fifth.

The Pirates made it 2-0 on a broken-bat groundout by Davis in the seventh, driving in Enmanuel Valdez. Third baseman Amed Rosario had to avoid Davis’ bat flying at him before he made a play to first.

The benches cleared in the seventh after a pitch by Jorge López went near Andrew McCutchen’s head. López, who also hit Bryan Reynolds, was ejected.

Cruz’s third homer of the season gave Pittsburgh a six-run lead.

Key moment

There was a weird play in the bottom of the sixth. Tommy Pham hit a liner to left that was trapped by James Wood on a hop. Cruz went back to first not realizing what had happened, and Pham stopped running before reaching the base. Following a review, Cruz was safe and Pham was out.

Key stat

Washington finished with three hits.

Up next

Nationals right-hander Trevor Williams (1-1, 7.36 ERA) faces Pirates left-hander Andrew Heaney (0-1, 3.00 ERA) on Thursday.

GUARDIANS FALL

BALTIMORE (AP) — Jackson Holliday hit a second-inning grand slam, Dean Kremer turned in his best start of the young season and the Baltimore Orioles routed the Cleveland Guardians 9-1 on Wednesday night.

Holliday snapped an 0-for-17 drought with a drive that carried into the Baltimore bullpen in center field off Gavin Williams (1-1) with one out in the second.

Kremer (2-2) entered the game with an ERA of 8.16 but allowed just one run — a homer by Gabriel Arias in the third — in 5 1/3 innings. He allowed four hits.

Ramón Laureano hit a solo homer for the Orioles in the seventh, and Ryan O’Hearn added one in Baltimore’s four-run eighth.

Cleveland loaded the bases with one out in the eighth but failed to score.

Baltimore did its pitchers few favors defensively. On three occasions, Cleveland hitters were credited with hits on plays that probably should have been made. Right fielder Heston Kjerstad did make a nice sliding catch along the warning track in right-center field in the sixth, denying an extra-base hit that may have scored two runs for Cleveland.

Williams allowed five runs, four hits and four walks in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four.

Key moment

Holliday’s grand slam was the second of his career — the 21-year-old infielder has hit only seven homers. The Orioles loaded the bases that inning with walks by Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías and a single by Ryan Mountcastle.

Key stat

In their seven wins this year, the Orioles have averaged 8.0 runs per game. In their 10 losses, they’ve averaged 2.2.

Up next

The Orioles will try for their first series win of the season in Thursday night’s finale. Baltimore sends Tomoyuki Sugano (1-1) to the mound against Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee (1-1).