It took just under a month into the season, but Thursday night in Anaheim, the Pittsburgh Pirates were presented with their first opportunity at a sweep in 2025.
They couldn’t cash in, losing 4-3 to the Angels.
For their two preceding wins over Los Angeles, they had their bats in particular to thank. The Pirates racked up a season-high 18 hits Tuesday and had 11 Wednesday.
Four of their last five games leading into first pitch Thursday featured hit totals in the double digits.
The Pirates were hot at the plate to start, taking an early three-run lead by the end of the second inning.
However, Los Angeles tied it in the fourth and in the eighth, Zach Neto crushed a go-ahead solo homer down the left field line off Chase Shugart (1-1, 1.93 ERA) to spoil the Pirates’ hopes of a sweep.
Needing a rally in the ninth inning against veteran closer Kenley Jansen, the Pirates (10-16) were unable to bring pinch-hitter Adam Frazier around for the tying run.
Oneil Cruz, who homered earlier on the second pitch of the game, lined out sharply to Mike Trout in right field, ending the game.
Carmen Mlodzinski started Thursday and got through five innings, matching his career high, and allowed three runs on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
Mlodzinski (1-3, 6.95 ERA) took a no decision, as did Angels starter Tyler Anderson, who lasted six innings, allowing three runs.
All of the damage against Mlodzinski came in the fourth inning.
“It just looked like in the fourth, balls got to the middle of the plate, and I think what we’ve seen is, when (Mlodzinski) pitches to the middle of the plate, he gets hit,” manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show.
One night after launching a towering, 463-foot home run in the second game vs. the Angels, Cruz led off Thursday with another long ball, a solo shot off Anderson.
Cruz’s team-leading seventh homer of the year, traveling 398 feet to right field, gave the Pirates (11-16) a quick 1-0 lead.
The Pirates kept working Anderson in the first, with Andrew McCutchen ripping a double into left-center field and Joey Bart following with a single, putting men on first and third.
Ke’Bryan Hayes then made it 2-0 Pirates, beating out a double play ball to plate McCutchen with an RBI groundout.
In the second, the Pirates went up 3-0 when 27-year-old Matt Gorski, making his MLB debut, left the yard in his first big-league at-bat.
Gorski’s solo shot off Anderson went 434 feet to left-center field.
“I was like, ‘That’s pretty cool,’” Gorski said of his homer. “I got back to the dugout and kind of blacked out a little bit. (Teammates) did the silent treatment on me, which was funny, but yeah, it was really cool.”
He finished the night 1 for 4, starting the game at first base before moving to left field in the eighth.
The Angels tied the game in the fourth against Mlodzinski, who’s had struggles this season in navigating through opposing batting orders multiple times.
Taylor Ward made it 3-1 by singling home Trout, who tripled.
Trout’s three-bagger came as a result of a failed diving attempt in right field by Bryan Reynolds, with the ball instead rolling all the way to the outfield wall before Cruz retrieved it.
Then, Logan O’Hoppe hit a two-run shot to right field, making the score 3-3.
Meanwhile, Anderson recovered from his rough start, bouncing back to deliver six innings, allowing zero hits after the third.
Kyle Nicolas took over for Mlodzinski and pitched two hitless innings in the sixth and seventh, striking out three.
Shugart, who entered Thursday’s game having limited opposing hitters to a .138 average, was taken deep by Neto on a 1-2 sweeper.