PITTSBURGH — Matt Olson homered in the third inning, then scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the 11th as the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Saturday.
The Braves are 5-0 in extra innings this season, and their past three wins — in a five-game stretch — have all come in that fashion. Atlanta beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 in 10 innings Tuesday and 5-4 in 11 innings Thursday, with both of those home games for the winners.
Chase Shugart (1-3), the sixth pitcher used by Pittsburgh on Saturday, got Sean Murphy to ground to shortstop for the second out in the top of the 11th with Olson on third. Shugart intentionally walked Michael Harris II to bring up Eli White, then nearly hit him in the head with a pitch that went to the backstop, allowing Olson to score.
Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes had started the bottom of the 10th by moving automatic runner Henry Davis to third on a sacrifice bunt. Davis was thrown out at home after Matt Gorski grounded to third. Scott Blewett (2-0), the sixth pitcher used by Atlanta on Saturday, then got Alexander Canario to fly out.
Canario went to third on Jared Triolo’s sac bunt to start the 11th for Pittsburgh. Blewett went on to strike out Liover Peguero and force Tommy Pham to ground out to second.
Joey Bart hit his fourth single of the game with one out in the eighth for the Pirates. Ji Hwan Bae entered as the pinch runner, stole second, advanced on a groundout and scored to tie it 2 when Gorski sent a dribbler down the line to third.
Don Kelly, in his second game as Pirates manager since Derek Shelton was fired on Thursday, was tossed in the sixth inning after plate umpire Clint Vondrak called two balls to start Olson’s at-bat.
Murphy and Harris hit back-to-back doubles in the second inning to put Atlanta ahead before Olson hit a sinker from Andrew Heaney 431 feet for a 2-0 lead.
The Pirates, who fell to 13-27 overall and are last in the National League Central Division, scored fewer than five runs in a 16th straight game. Their longest streak since at least 1901 is 17 games from Aug. 12-29, 1908.
Braves left-hander Chris Sale (1-3, 4.07 ERA) will take the mound in the series finale Sunday, when Pittsburgh counters with right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski (1-3, 6.16).
Atlanta, which is third in the NL East, is 19-20 as it tries to get to .500 for the first time this season. Sunday’s game will be the Braves’ fifth opportunity, which includes a loss in the second game during an 0-7 start.