Despite having a historically high 15 runners left on base, the Pittsburgh Pirates made it through to beat the Washington Nationals 5-1 at PNC Park last night.

Pittsburgh left 12 men on base through the first five innings of the game, which Greg Brown said on the game broadcast was the most by a Pirates team in a game since 1974.

The Pirates had multiple chances with the bases load to bring home additional runs, but failed to convert on the several gifts that the Nationals gave them.

Washington, for their part, did their part to help loading the bases. They intentionally walked 4 batters during the game, in the hopes of getting a better matchup for their pitchers.

It paid off several times.

Even with all their struggles bringing Buccos to shore, Pittsburgh did manage to tally 5 runs in the game, including a two run homer by Joshua Palacios.

Palacios also had a stellar outfield throw to Endy Rodriguez for a tag out at home.

Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter played amazing, putting in solid innings even as the Pirates couldn’t find their way offensively.

Falter’s work allowed the Pirates to stay in the game until they started to find a bit of a groove at the plate.

Falter earned his second win of the season, pitching 6.0 innings, the second times he’s thrown that long as a Pirate.

The bullpen picked up where Falter left off, and Ryan Borucki pitched the ninth inning for the first time in his major league career.

The Pirates are now even in the series with the Nationals sit, with two games left in the series.

Pittsburgh sits at 67-78, good for fourth place in the NL Central.

(Featured photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)