The Pirates’ rotation ERA is how low?

PITTSBURGH -- If his Pirates debut was any indication, Jordan Lyles will fit right in with the rest of Pittsburgh’s rotation.

Lyles worked five scoreless innings in the Pirates’ 2-0 win over the Reds on Thursday night at PNC Park, extending a strong start to the season by the backbone of the Bucs -- their starting pitching.

After five games, the Pirates’ rotation owns a 1.55 ERA. Since Jameson Taillon’s Opening Day start in Cincinnati, they’ve combined to allow one run in 23 innings.

“Picked up right where they left off last year, man,” right-hander Nick Kingham said. “It is impressive. I didn’t expect anything else.”

Here are five takeaways from the Pirates’ first win of the season at PNC Park:

They liked Lyles for a reason

Lyles wasn’t quite as efficient as Taillon, as prone to soft contact as Trevor Williams or as flat-out dominant as Chris Archer. But he was quite effective, using the fastball-curveball combination that intrigued the Pirates this offseason to great effect while mixing in a changeup in some big spots.

Lyles allowed three hits and three walks while striking out two. He threw 48 of his 80 pitches for strikes, and 28 of those 80 pitches were curveballs. The right-hander expanded his arsenal when necessary, with no better example than his final matchup of the night. With two outs in the fifth and a 2-2 count, Lyles got Joey Votto to awkwardly swing over a changeup to end the inning.

“He just kept them off-balance and controlled bat speed really well,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Happy with what we saw.”

Lyles left little doubt that he wanted to get deeper into the game than five innings, and Hurdle told Lyles that they had “no intentions of you being a five-inning guy.” But they wanted him to finish his first outing on a high note. He did.

“Going forward, we’re definitely going to look to get deeper into games,” Lyles said. “But overall, not complaining about some scoreless innings.”

The bullpen was bound to rebound eventually

Kingham followed Lyles and worked two innings to maintain the scoreless tie. Then came right-hander Richard Rodriguez, who allowed a home run in each of his first two appearances.

Rodriguez worked around a two-out walk in the eighth and looked more like his 2018 self by striking out Scott Schebler with a pair of elevated fastballs.

“More than anything, it felt really good that in the midst of those struggles in the past, the team and management continued to believe in me and provide that confidence within me, just continuing to trust in me in those situations,” Rodriguez said through interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “To be able to come back and do what I do, it was awesome.”

Closer Felipe Vazquez bounced back from a pair of lengthy outings and some shaky defense to secure his first save. A strikeout-wild pitch and a double that skipped past right fielder Pablo Reyes put runners on second and third with one out, but Vazquez struck out Curt Casali and Kyle Farmer to escape unscathed.

They found ways to score

The Pirates have only hit three home runs this season, and they’re 3-for-31 with runners in scoring position over their last three games. They’re going to have to support their pitching staff however possible, as they did on Thursday.

Melky Cabrera hit a one-out single in the seventh inning, then pinch-runner Pablo Reyes hustled to third base on a hit-and-run as JB Shuck’s grounder bounced off second baseman Jose Peraza. Up came Kevin Newman, who chopped a 36.8-mph groundout to first base that brought home Reyes.

They executed another hit-and-run in the eighth. Francisco Cervelli singled up the middle and sent Starling Marte to third. That brought up Josh Bell, who pulled an RBI single through Cincinnati’s drawn-in infield to provide a valuable insurance run.

“Just some action to keep things moving,” Hurdle said. “I was really happy with our effort and our intensity to continue to push it.”

They can play clean defense

It wasn’t perfect -- the ninth inning was proof -- but it was better. Bell picked a handful of tough throws at first. Shuck handled left field well in Corey Dickerson’s absence. Marte made a leaping catch at the wall. And Jung Ho Kang, held hitless, started a key double play to end the fourth inning.

“For my outing, that was probably the pivotal point,” Lyles said.

They followed the blueprint

They’ll win some higher-scoring games during the season, but the Pirates aren’t built to out-slug opponents. They will have to win a lot of games the way they won Thursday.

“Get the lead, get the starter through five or six innings, give it over to our bullpen and we shut it down,” Kingham said. “That’s the way good teams win.”