Pirates take down Nationals to complete stellar road trip

Martin Perez pitched 6 2/3 strong innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates had plenty of early offense to support him in a 7-4 victory against the host Washington Nationals on Thursday.

Connor Joe homered, Bryan Reynolds was involved in rallies in each of the first two innings and Michael Taylor posted three hits as the Pirates bounced back from their only loss of the season and completed a season-opening road trip with a 6-1 record.

CJ Abrams homered for the Nationals and had two of the team's eight hits.

Perez (1-0), in his second outing of the season, struck out six and walked two while allowing two runs and six hits. Luis Ortiz gave up two runs in one inning and was followed by Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar, who logged his first save.

The Pirates have scored at least six runs in all six of their wins this year.

Pittsburgh posted four first-inning runs on three hits and two walks. Jack Suwinski hit a sacrifice fly to open the scoring before Rowdy Tellez's two-run single and Henry Davis' sacrifice fly.

Reynolds, who doubled and scored in the first inning, provided a run-scoring single in the second.

The Nationals got on the board in the bottom of the second when Joey Gallo's double and Jesse Winker's single produced a run.

Washington starter Josiah Gray (0-2) made it through 4 1/3 innings, giving up six runs on seven hits and three walks.

Joe's first homer of the season came in the top of the fifth and Abrams matched it with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning for his second home run of the year.

The Nationals pulled within 7-4 in the eighth on Trey Lipscomb's two-out single followed by Luis Garcia Jr.'s pinch-hit infield single to bring the potential tying run to the plate.

But Chapman pout out the fire by striking out Jacob Young.

Tellez and Oneil Cruz each added two hits for Pittsburgh, which plays its home opener Friday against Baltimore.

The start of the game was delayed for about 70 minutes because of weather-related concerns.