Two starts after no-hitter, Gilbert settling in

After throwing a no-hitter in his first MLB start, Tyler Gilbert experienced the difficulties of pitching at Coors Field in his second. But there was little the D-backs left-hander could have done to match his starting debut -- save for throwing another no-no.

It may not have helped that Gilbert had a whirlwind week between his Aug. 14 no-hitter against the Padres and his five-inning, four-run start vs. the Rockies last Friday. He dealt with a plethora of media requests and all the attention that came from becoming the fourth pitcher to throw a no-no in his first career start.

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“I know his head was spinning, and I would see him sitting by his locker, just collecting his breath every now and then,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “In between those moments, I know that he was moving around the clubhouse for a lot of different things and a lot of different responsibilities. I think he’s finally had a chance to take a deep breath.”

That showed when Gilbert took the mound at PNC Park on Wednesday night for his third start. He retired the first 10 Pirates batters he faced and delivered five quality innings in the D-backs’ 5-2 win. Gilbert allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out four.

Six outings into his big league career (which included three relief appearances earlier in the month), the 27-year-old Gilbert is starting to feel more settled in, which was evident with his latest solid showing.

“I’m feeling a lot more comfortable coming into each start now,” Gilbert said. “Just the whole routine leading up to the start, getting back into my groove of things. It was pretty crazy there after that no-hitter for a few days, the whole week after that. But I’m happy to just keep going and feeling just a little bit more relaxed going into each start now.”

Gilbert needed only 26 pitches to get through the first three innings, then got Michael Chavis to ground out to open the fourth. Things got a bit more difficult for Gilbert from there, as he gave up a one-out double to Ke’Bryan Hayes, who later scored the game’s first run on a Jacob Stallings sacrifice fly. But Gilbert stranded a pair of baserunners to end the frame.

In the fifth, Gilbert gave up an RBI single to Chavis and loaded the bases with a two-out walk to Bryan Reynolds. However, Gilbert kept Pittsburgh’s lead at 2-0, stranding the trio of baserunners by getting Yoshi Tsutsugo to fly out to end his outing.

Lovullo said he was planning on letting Gilbert pitch six or seven innings with how strong he started. But after two laborious frames on a humid night -- “Obviously, I was sweating, kind of a lot,” Gilbert said -- Lovullo was ready to turn the game over to his bullpen after Gilbert threw 80 pitches.

Still, Lovullo was impressed again by what he saw from Gilbert.

“There were swing-and-miss curveballs, there were cut fastballs driven to both sides of the plate,” Lovullo said. “It was a pretty solid effort.”

Gilbert is also making fans out of his D-backs teammates.

“I’m just glad that he’s on our side,” said left fielder David Peralta, who went 3-for-4. “He’s doing his job. He’s got a lot of confidence, and I really like the way he goes and does his business.”

Arizona’s offense came to life after Gilbert’s night was done. In the sixth, Pavin Smith hit a solo homer and the D-backs capitalized on an error by Bucs right fielder Gregory Polanco to tie the game at 2. They went ahead on Carson Kelly’s pinch-hit solo homer the next inning, and Peralta padded the lead with a two-run double in the eighth.

The D-backs got four scoreless innings from their bullpen, with Brett de Geus, J.B. Wendelken, Taylor Clarke, Joe Mantiply and Tyler Clippard combining to hold the Pirates to four hits over that span. It helped Arizona avoid a three-game sweep after it had dropped four of five to begin this 10-game road trip, which now heads to Philadelphia for a four-game set beginning Thursday.

“Our guys did their job,” Lovullo said. “And that’s one of the main reasons why we won the game tonight.”