Bucs complete sweep of White Sox

The Pirates are at .500 heading into the All-Star break for the first time in eight years.

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ most reliable starting pitcher (who’s not going to the All-Star Game) lasted only three innings Sunday, but others had Mitch Keller’s back during a 9-4 win against the Chicago White Sox.

The victory at Guaranteed Rate Field was the Pirates’ fourth in a row, their longest winning streak since opening the season 5-0, and gives the team a boost entering the All-Star break. The Pirates are 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central and 1 1/2 off the NL’s third and final wild-card spot.

The Pirates (48-48) haven’t been .500 or better at the break since 2016.

Further testing of the Pirates’ ability to remain in the playoff chase comes up Friday when the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies, who have the best record in MLB, open a three-game series at PNC Park.

“We’re starting to swing the bats better. We’re in a good spot,” manager Derek Shelton said on the Sports-Net Pittsburgh postgame show of his team that has scored 40 runs in the past seven games.

While winning the past two against the White Sox, the Pirates scored 10 times after the start of the seventh inning.

“Proud of our group. They played the entire game,” Shelton said.

But the manager understands what comes next matters even more — nine games immediately after the break against the Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We got some teams that are in front of us,” he said.

The big blows leading to the Pirates’ sixth victory in their past seven outings — and sweep of the threegame series — were catcher Joey Bart’s three-run homer in the fourth and Nick Gonzales’ two-run triple in the seventh. Gonzales eventually scored on Rowdy Tellez’s sacrifice fly, and Ke’Bryan Hayes and Josh Palacios punctuated the four-run outburst by ripping doubles into the right-center gap.

Hayes collected three hits and has more than one in three consecutive games to raise his batting average from .227 on June 28 to .244. “Good time for (Hayes) to get hot,” Shelton said.

Bryan Reynolds added his 18th home run in the eighth inning, a personal best for him before the All-Star break.

Keller left the game after three innings and 57 pitches, allowing two runs, four hits and three walks while striking out three. That ended Keller’s streak of 49 consecutive starts of five innings or more, tied with A.J. Burnett for second-most in franchise history.

“I felt great,” Keller said, “just felt a little bit out of sync. Managed through it. Two-seam (fastball) wasn’t moving as much. Sweeper had good movement. I just wasn’t able to locate it as well as I normally had. It was kind of backing up on me. Not the best feel for that.”

Said Shelton: “No. 1, it was really hot. No. 2, he was scuffling, just didn’t like where he was at. It was the first time we’ve seen him like that in a while. Having a full bullpen going into the break, (I) decided to get a little aggressive.”

Shelton turned to his bullpen, with Quinn Priester, Kyle Nicolas, Carmen Mlodzinski, Colin Holderman and Dennis Santana giving up two more runs in the final six innings.

The White Sox (27-71, with a record number of losses before the break) scored a run in the first inning when Eloy Jimenez grounded into a bases- loaded double play. The first three batters Keller faced reached base when Tommy Pham and Andrew Benintendi singled and Luis Robert Jr. walked.

Benintendi, who was 3 for 4 with three runs scored, homered in the third inning against Keller to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead.

Bart, who has driven in 20 runs with only 21 hits, said his sixth homer of the season turned out to be “a little jolt of energy on a hot day.”

He said he’s unconcerned about the break robbing the team of its current momentum.

“You’re at this thing every day” he said. “It will be nice to get some rest. The break will be here and gone, and we’ll be back in the clubhouse ready to rock and roll soon. We did what we needed to do to close it out, and we just have to keep that momentum once we get back.”