PITTSBURGH — When the San Diego Padres clustered five hits and scored three runs in the top of the second inning on Tuesday night, it felt like another disastrous night looming for the Pirates.
But as fans dodged intermittent raindrops in the stands, manager Derek Shelton’s team finally saw its offensive drought end.
Keyed by an outburst from the bottom five hitters in the order, a group that entered this game with exactly zero hits in its past 94 at-bats, the Pirates erased the Padres’ lead and enjoyed a rare productive night at the plate during a 9-4 victory at PNC Park.
One of those five, Nick Gonzales, enjoyed a night he won’t soon forget. The Pirates prospect, promoted in Miami, crushed his first MLB homer 442 feet five innings after collecting his first big league hit: a triple off the Clemente Wall.
Gonzales, who had been 0 for 8, finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored, but he was hardly the only one to enjoy a statistically productive night.
With his name being batted around as a nonsensical trade candidate, a reality that neither Andrew McCutchen nor the Pirates want, Cutch traded the irresponsible speculation for a three-hit night. Another of the team’s elder statesmen, Carlos Santana, launched a homer among his hits.
Four of those five oh-fer streaks were snapped, starting with a single from Rodolfo Castro (0 for 18). After Ji Hwan Bae’s sacrifice fly got the Pirates on the board, Gonzales cut it to 3-2 with his triple off the wall.
The MLB walks leader this month, McCutchen then created a 3-3 tie with his first single, roping a 1-0 cutter into left to tie Bobby Bonilla and Jason Giambi on the career hits list. He would obviously pass them later in the evening.
The most confounding member of the Pirates’ slumping club has undoubtedly been Jack Suwinski, who began the game riding an 0-for-29 skid, the same marks that got him sent to Triple-A Indianapolis last season.
He teamed with Santana, who has actually been one of the team’s fewest productive hitters of late, to deliver back-to-back blasts in the third, handing the Pirates a 5-3 lead.
Santana ripped a fastball that was middle away at 110.6 mph, sending it on a line over the right-center field fence. It marked the fourth time in the past five games that Santana contributed at least one RBI.
Next came Suwinski, who nudged into the top-10 in the National League in OPS (.924) after a two-homer game in Chicago on June 13 … and hadn’t had a hit since. Suwinski got a pitch that was similar to Santana, a four-seamer located middle away, and he also pulled it to right-center.
While the rookie spotlight definitely belonged to Gonzales on this night, Henry Davis — bumped up to No. 3 in the order — more than did his part by lining a run-scoring single to right in the fourth.
The nine runs represented the second-best offensive output for the Pirates this month behind the 14 they scored against the Mets on June 9.
Among the other streaks snapped, Austin Hedges (0 for 17) collected a pair of hits and was on base four times, only the fourth such game of his career.
ON THE MOUND
It was easy to overlook Rich Hill, considering all of the hitting the Pirates did, but this was actually an important start for him. In a way because he kept the line moving with the Pirates getting a bunch of strong starts of late.
In Miami, the Pirates pitched it really well, their starters allowing just five earned runs over 27 2/3 innings (1.63 ERA) the past four games. Hill wasn’t quite that good against the Padres, but he was still plenty effective.
The veteran left-hander allowed four earned runs over six innings, walking two and striking out four. That second inning was a little bumpy, but aside from that, Hill pitched very well.
The defense helped him with terrific double plays in the first and third innings, and Hill was he has done so well this season: attacking the strike zone and forcing opposing hitters to put the ball in play. Tuesday’s start also comes after Hill gave up nine runs (six earned) in his past two outings.
AT THE PLATE
An important sequence in the game came in the bottom of the sixth inning, after the Padres scored one more against Hill and sliced Pittsburgh’s lead to two at 6-4.
McCutchen opening the inning with a single. Santana swung at a 3-0 fastball on the inside portion of the plate and dropped one into left-center for an RBI and a 7-4 Pirates lead. Castro followed by drilling one through the left side to score another run.
The Gonzales homer came in the next inning for the Pirates — and what a blast it was. Gonzales again worked deep into the count, this time getting to 2-2, before smashing a fastball over the shrubbery to deep center field.
Gonzales absolutely crushed it, the ball traveling an estimated 442 feet, according to Statcast.
UP NEXT
Mitch Keller gets the ball in the second game of the series. His 113 strikeouts after 16 starts are tied for the second-most in Pirates history since 1893, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
