PITTSBURGH — It may have been tough to see through the cloudy haze that enveloped Pittsburgh throughout the day on Wednesday and well into the night. But if you squinted hard enough, peering through the smoke, you saw that productive offense had returned to the North Shore.
And, no, the Steelers weren’t staging any sort of summer workouts.
As the Pirates looked to follow their offensive outburst from 24 hours prior — nine runs scored during a rout of the San Diego Padres — it was an amalgamation of players who once again put a hand into the pile during Pittsburgh’s 7-1 victory at PNC Park.
There was 37-year-old Carlos Santana, the steady force through the most turbulent times, talking about this being a long season preaching patience, and on Wednesday smashing a long home run in the first inning.
First-pitch fastball. Up in the zone. Boom, 427 feet. A no-doubter. It ended a run of 14 consecutive solo home runs — by either team — hit at PNC Park.
In the seventh, as San Diego crept to within a run, the kids took their turn. Nick Gonzales singled, Jack Suwinski walked and Jared Triolo couldn’t keep dodging the baseball. One hit him in the hand during a bunt attempt to load the bases.
From there, it was a series of hits that often eluded the Pirates earlier this month — not the titanic blasts that land on the other side of the fence, but more liners and jam shots that somehow find holes and open grass.
Josh Palacios, pinch hitting for Austin Hedges, lined an inside cutter into right field for a 3-1 lead. Fernando Tatis Jr. made a commendable diving attempt but couldn’t make the play. Connor Joe followed with a two-strike flare into center to plate couple more runs and stretch the advantage to 5-1.
Another of the team’s unquestioned leaders, and someone who gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday, Andrew McCutchen took the baton and singled home another run.
The best example of things going differently for the Pirates in this one came next. Henry Davis chopped a 99-mph, two-strike sinker the other way, through the right side, for a two-run single to effectively push this game out of reach.
Triolo, making his big league debut, would later pick up his first MLB hit, continuing the run of good vibes the Pirates have started again by relying more on young, opportunistic players.
And they completed another team-wide offensive onslaught that you almost had to be here to believe.
Pittsburgh’s five-run seventh obviously tipped the outcome for good. The Pirates sent 11 men to the plate in the frame, the fourth time this season they’ve had 10 or plate appearances in a single inning and the first time since May 19 against Arizona.
ON THE MOUND
Given how his evening started, it was actually fairly impressive that Mitch Keller wound up with his 11th quality start of the season. The Pirates right-hander needed 57 pitches to navigate the first two innings but seemed to gain momentum from a nine-pitch third.
That was part of a stretch for Keller where he retired 10 in a row, until Tatis led off the sixth inning with a single. Tatis advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ single to the right side.
The hit came during an at-bat where Bogaerts fouled off four pitches before getting a four-seam fastball atop the zone and driving it the right way to pull the Padres to within one at 2-1.
Keller wound up working six innings and allowing one earned run on four hits. He walked two, struck out five and threw 68 of his 104 pitches for strikes. Perhaps due to the air quality or maybe he just didn’t have his best stuff, but Keller’s velocity was down a little. He also had only three whiffs but racked up 29 called strikes.
AT THE PLATE
The runner on base when Santana hit his homer, Davis, continued his recent run of productivity after starting his MLB career with one hit in his first 10 at-bats.
Davis stretched his hitting streak to six games with his first-inning single, meaning he’s one of only four Pirates to have a six-plus-game hitting streak within their first nine career games since 2012.
Aside from Santana and Davis, the Pirates didn’t really do much against Padres starter Blake Snell, who was tied with Kevin Gausman for the MLB lead in strikeouts since May 31 (50). The lefty fanned 10 Pirates in six innings and delivered his sixth straight quality start.
That matches his career-high, which was set back in 2018. Credit to the Pirates, though, they capitalized once knocking Snell out of the game.
UP NEXT
After allowing just runs in 12 2/3 innings over his last two starts, Luis Ortiz gets the ball for Pittsburgh in the series finale against the Padres. The Pirates haven’t swept a series since taking three in a row against St. Louis June 2-4.
