Rodríguez goes 8 innings, Moreno hits 2-run homer as Diamondbacks blank Pirates 3-0

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Eduardo Rodríguez pitched eight shutout innings, Gabriel Moreno hit a two-run homer and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 on Wednesday, clinching the three-game series.

Arizona (57-52) now sits two games up on the Pirates (55-54) for the final NL wild card.

Rodríguez (10-3) struck out two while giving up five hits on 105 pitches before Brandyn Garcia closed out a hitless ninth inning for his second save of the year.

The loss marked the fifth straight against a left-handed opener for Pittsburgh, while Diamondbacks starters gave up zero earned runs in 20 2/3 innings pitched this series.

Moreno scored the game's first runs, smashing a slider 407 feet into the lawn past the center-field wall. With the hit, he extended his on-base streak to 26 consecutive games.

Max Kepler drove in the only other score with an RBI single in the sixth inning.

Despite three consecutive three-up, three-down innings to start the game, Jared Jones (2-2) surrendered all three runs and struck out five in six innings for the Pirates.

The Pirates have been shut out in three of their last seven games. They lost 2-0 to the Yankees a week ago and 11-0 to the Cubs on Saturday.

Diamondbacks: After an off day, LHP Mitch Bratt (0-1, 6.32 ERA) takes the mound for Game 1 of a weekend series at the Cleveland Guardians on Friday.

Pirates: Yet to announce a starter for Thursday's opener of a four-game series at the Cincinnati Reds.

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Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandyn Garcia (55) celebrates with catcher Gabriel Moreno, left, after getting the final out of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jared Jones delivers in the first inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Gabriel Moreno celebrates as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run off of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jared Jones during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)

NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man was sentenced Wednesday to six months and a week behind bars for ramming his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters, the Jewish institution in New York where his lawyer said he was trying to win acceptance as he struggled with psychological issues.

Dan Sohail, 36, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court by a judge who declined a recommendation by prosecutors that he force Sohail to remain behind bars for another eight months. The sentence clears the way for the New Jersey man, who has already spent six months in detention, to be released in about a week.

Prosecutors had sought a stiffer sentence as a wider warning to those who might attack Jewish interests amid a dramatic rise in hate crimes against the Jewish population.

Judge Eric N. Vitaliano said he was "somewhat saddened" to see that the Justice Department wanted him to be influenced at sentencing by a mistaken initial impression among the wider public that the Jan. 28 attack was a hate crime.

No one was injured when Sohail drove his car into the Chabad Headquarters' side entrance five times, knocking the door off its hinges and destroying his car's front bumper. Before he drove toward the building, he waived passersby away, a fact the judge mentioned at sentencing as he ordered him to pay $20,000 restitution.

The complex at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn includes a synagogue and offices, and was bustling with people at the time, authorities there said.

Prosecutors in their arguments prior to sentencing noted that “a staggering” 80 of 146 hate crime incidents across New York City since the start of the year were based on crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions.

Vitaliano said the government's argument for a stiff sentence to send a deterrent message to the general public was in part based on the fact that the attack was initially cast as an “I-hate-the-Jews crime, or, worse, an act-of-terrorism crime.”

But he noted that federal prosecutors ultimately charged the Carteret, New Jersey, man with intentionally damaging religious property and Sohail pleaded guilty in mid-May.

The judge cited a psychiatric report he reviewed and said Sohail's mental health challenges “played an important role” in his decision-making.

“This is a sad tale,” Vitaliano said.

Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg told the judge in court papers prior to the sentencing that Sohail was battling depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after a traumatizing childhood when he carried out the attack even as he “desperately sought belonging and understanding through his exploration of Judaism.”

She said Sohail attended the Chabad he eventually attacked and “found the rabbinical students there warm and welcoming.”

Eisner Grynberg said Sohail “danced with them” and followed their instructions to visit Israel, but he became erratic and extremely anxious after he returned to the United States and was “begging” members of the Chabad to assist him.

Driving the car into the building, she said, was “an irrational cry for help.”

Sohail did not speak at sentencing, but he thanked the judge at the end of the proceeding.

The crash occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the leader of the Lubavitch movement and prompted immediate concern in the city. Schneerson died in 1994, but remains a revered figure globally. There has been a near-constant police presence around the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters for years.

The site was at the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots in 1991, when Black residents of the neighborhood attacked Jews after a child was killed by a car traveling in Schneerson’s motorcade. In 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student, wounding him, before being shot dead by police.

FILE - People clean up after a car slammed into the entrance of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters, Jan. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)