Pirates Power Way to Win Over Padres; Priester Notches First Victory

Recap

The Pittsburgh Pirates belted four home runs off of San Diego Padres starter Yu Darvish (7-7) en route to an 8-4 victory at Petco Park on Monday night.

Jack Suwinski, who finished the game a triple shy of the cycle, started the power surge with a game-tying solo home run in the top of the third inning before Carlos Santana recorded a pair of two-run homers — one in the third and one in the fifth.

Liover Peguero joined the homer barrage with his first-career home run in the top of the fourth inning with a solo shot that just snuck over the left field wall. Peguero drove in his second run of the game after legging out an infield single in the fifth.

The outburst on offense paved the way to Quinn Priester (1-1) collecting his first career big league win. The rookie right-hander allowed a leadoff homer to Ha-Seong Kim, and Kim later hit a two-run homer off Priester in the fifth.

Priester’s final line read four runs on four hits in 5.1 innings while striking out four Padres’ hitters and walking three.

Key Moment 

Santana’s first homer of the night gave the Pirates the lead for good and opened the floodgates to a big night from the bats.

Star of the Game

In addition to his two home runs and four RBIs, Santana also doubled and drew a walk. He raised his OPS on the season from .699 to .730.

Stat of Interest

Endy Rodriguez caught the first attempted base stealer of his career by throwing out Kim thanks to an impressive 1.81 pop time from behind the plate.

Noteworthy

• This is the fourth time this season Suwinski has had three hits in a game, the last coming on June 9 against the Mets. He’s homered at least once in all four of his three-hit games on the year.
• Andrew McCutchen went 1 for 3 with two walks and stole his 10th base of the year. With the steal, McCutchen now has 10 stolen bases and 10 home runs this season, making him the third Pirates’ player to record 10 homers and 10 steals in his age-36 season and the first since Lee Lacy hit 12 homers and stole 21 bases in 1984. The last MLB player to do so was Shin-Soo Choo in 2019.
• Santana’s two-homer game was his first of the season and the seventh instance of a Pirates’ player doing so this year. That’s the most for the Pirates in a single season since they did it 12 times in 2019.
• Peguero’s first-career homer marked the sixth different Pirates’ player to hit their first long ball this season and the sixth since June 1.
• Tucupita Marcano exited the game due to a ligamentous injury of his right knee after landing awkwardly attempting to advance to third in the fifth inning. He will undergo further testing on Tuesday.

Up Next

The Pirates (44-56) and Padres (48-53) will continue their three-game series on Tuesday night. Rich Hill (7-9, 4.84) will start for the Pittsburgh and will be opposite fellow southpaw Blake Snell (6-8, 2.67). First pitch: 9:40 ET.