Perrotto: Pirates’ Nightmare Showing Signs of Ending (+)
PITTSBURGH – Back-to-back offensive eruptions do not necessarily mean the Pittsburgh Pirates have broken out of their hitting slump.
But pounding out 17 hits in a game started by one of the best pitchers in the major leagues Friday night sure felt pretty good for a team in which reaching home plate has seemed more than reaching the peak of Mount Everest during the month of May.
“That was definitely a lot of fun,” Pirates right fielder Josh Palacios said with a smile.
The Pirates routed the Arizona Diamondbacks and Zac Gallen 13-3 in the opener of a three-game series at PNC Park. And the Pirates got contributions up and down the lineup as they won for the third time in four games following a stretch of 11 losses in 12 games.
Palacios and Ke’Bryan Hayes each had three hits and three RBIs to lead the way. Bryan Reynolds homered for the first time in six weeks and drove in four runs.
Andrew McCutchen and Ji Hwan Bae also had three hits apiece and Jack Suwinski added two.
The Pirates had four players with three or more hits for the second time this season. They also did so on April 7 in the home opener against the Chicago White Sox.
The last season in which the Pirates had two games like that was in 1990 when they won the first of three National League East titles.
The Pirates raked Gallen (6-2) for eight runs – five earned – in 3.2 innings along with eight hits. Gallen had allowed just six runs total in his previous seven starts.
In their previous game Wednesday, the Pirates beat the Tigers 8-0 in Detroit. Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez had allowed just two runs over his prior six starts.
That adds up to 21 runs in two games. After 22 runs in the previous 14 games in which the Pirates scored as many as four runs only once.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence,” Palacios said. “We had some ups, we had some downs, we had a little bit of an offensive drought for a little while, but it just reminds the guys we have a lot of hitters. We can hit and if we stick to our guns and stick to our process, we’ll be alright.”
The Pirates chased Gallen with a seven-run fourth inning in which they sent 11 batters to the plate while snapping a 1-1 tie. Gallen had three walks in the inning and third baseman Josh Rojas committed a fielding error that led to three unearned runs.
Palacios put the Pirates ahead 3-1 by grounding a two-run single into left field. Reynolds drew a bases-loaded walk and Suwinski hit a two-run double before Hayes capped the outburst with a two-run single.
Reynolds’ three-run homer an inning later pushed the lead to 11-1. It was Reynolds’ sixth home run of the season but first since April 7, a span of 34 games.
Despite the homer drought, Reynolds is having a fine season. He is hitting .294/.337/.509 in 42 games.
“It started the other day. He had a couple hits against Rodriguez,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “They weren’t balls that he hit hard. It was that just he put the ball in play and found the outfield grass.
“Then today you really saw the aggressiveness in his swings. With the exception of the first swing, every swing he took was aggressive – even when he was with two strikes. That’s when Bryan Reynolds is going at his best.”
Reynolds even pulled a great veteran move by leaving the clubhouse after the game before the media was permitted to enter. He wanted to avoid the traffic jam created by the post-game drone show.
Just like everyone else in the lineup, Reynolds suddenly can do no wrong.
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