PITTSBURGH (AP) — Oneil Cruz hit a leadoff home run, Andrew Heaney pitched 7 1/3 innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 1-0 on Thursday.
Cruz hit a grand slam in Wednesday’s 6-1 win and has four home runs this season.
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Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz returns to the dugout after hitting a solo home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams (32) to lead off the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz (15) rounds third after hitting a solo home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams (32) to lead off the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh won 1-0 on a leadoff homer for only the second time since 1900 after Carlos García's drive off the Marlins' Chris Hammond on Sept. 14, 1993, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Heaney (1-1) gave up all five National hits, walked two and struck out four. Ryan Borucki and Dennis Santana preserved the Pirates' first shutout this season, with Santana earning his second save.
Washington's Trevor Williams (1-2) gave up three hits in five innings. Nathaniel Lowe had two hits for the Nationals.
The Nationals were without manager Dave Martinez after he was suspended for one game following a bench-clearing incident Wednesday that resulted in Washington pitcher Jorge López being suspended three games for throwing at Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen. López has appealed. Bench coach Miguel Cairo served as manager Thursday.
Pirates catcher Joey Bart batted cleanup after missing five games with a sore back. Teammate Bryan Reynolds started in the outfield for the first time since March 30 after being confined to DH duties because of a right shoulder injury.
Third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes preserved the shutout in the eighth inning, snagging Amed Rosario's sharply hit ground ball down the line and throwing to first for the third out, stranding a runner at third.
Heaney, a 12-year veteran who signed with the Pirates in the offseason, was 0-2 with a 5.14 ERA in six previous career appearances — five starts — against Washington.
Washington's MacKenzie Gore (1-2, 3.52) pitches against Rockies' Chase Dollander (1-1, 5.06) at Colorado on Friday. The Pirates' Carmen Mlodzinski (1-2, 6.23) will face Cleveland's Luis Ortiz (1-2, 6.06) in Pittsburgh on Friday.
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Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz returns to the dugout after hitting a solo home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams (32) to lead off the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz (15) rounds third after hitting a solo home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams (32) to lead off the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike Friday, leaving an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home.
Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said “Locomotive Engineers on Strike” and “NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.” Passing drivers honked their horns.
The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement. It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.
“We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the situation as a “pause in the conversations.”
“I certainly expect to pick back up these conversations as soon as possible,” he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “If they’re willing to meet tonight, I’ll meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I’ll do it again. Because I think this is an imminently workable problem. The question is, do they have the willingness to come to a solution.”
Murphy said it was important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”
"Again, we cannot ignore the agency’s fiscal realities,” Murphy said.
The announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.
NJ Transit — the nation’s third-largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.
The agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday. The agency also will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.
However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers — only about 20% of current rail customers — so it urged people who could work from home to do so.
Even the threat of it had already caused travel disruptions. Amid the uncertainty, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the matter, and a mediator was present during Thursday’s talks. Kolluri said Thursday night that the mediation board has suggested a Sunday morning meeting to resume talks.
Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that wants to see its members earn wages comparable to other passenger railroads in the area. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.
NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.
Kolluri and Murphy said Thursday night that the problem isn’t so much whether both sides can agree to a wage increase, but whether they can do so under terms that wouldn’t then trigger other unions to demand similar increases and create a financially unfeasible situation for NJ Transit.
Congress has the power to intervene and block the strike and force the union to accept a deal, but lawmakers have not shown a willingness to do that this time like they did in 2022 to prevent a national freight railroad strike.
The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 450 today.
Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.
An NJ Transit train pulls into the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
An electronic display advises commuters of potential NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
