The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to lose in unfathomable fashion, and their latest fiasco happened before they could even blink.
Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the ninth inning with a hustle double, stole third base and broke for home on a dirt-ball read as the San Diego Padres staged a dramatic comeback.
The Pirates wasted a quality seven-inning start from lefty Bailey Falter by repeatedly coming up empty with runners on base, then watched Tatis score the winning run on David Bednar’s wild pitch for a 2-1 loss Saturday before 17,675 at PNC Park.
“You saw a superstar make a couple of superstar plays,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He got a really good read and stole third and scored on a ball that went about 10 feet away. I think you saw all of Fernando Tatis’ athleticism right there.”
The Pirates (12-22) lost their third consecutive game and suffered their seventh loss in nine games in a season that continues to spiral. They are in last place in the NL Central, nine games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs, and will attempt Sunday to avoid ending another homestand with a three-game sweep like they did against Cleveland last month.
Despite the start of the game being delayed by 1 hour, 42 minutes due to rain, Falter threw 59 of his 89 pitches for strikes and had a season-best six strikeouts while allowing one run on two hits and two walks. He leaned heavily on a four-seam fastball that generated 12 called strikes.
“I know that I’m going to get my fair share of righties in a lineup,” Falter said, “so whenever we’re able to establish the fastball in and paint those corners, it usually sets us up for some good success.”
The Pirates offense was quite the opposite. They took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the second inning, when Oneil Cruz smacked a single to right-center at an exit velocity of 118.4 mph to drive in Alexander Canario from third base. It was Cruz’s hardest-hit ball that resulted in a hit this season, though he had a line drive clocked at 119.6 mph to end a 4-3 loss at the Los Angeles Angels on April 24.
The Pirates came up empty on scoring chances in each of the next three innings. They went 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position, failing to build any momentum and stranding 10 runners.
In the third, Enmanuel Valdez hit a two-out single to center and advanced to second on a passed ball but was thrown out at home by Brandon Lockridge while attempting to score on a Ke’Bryan Hayes single to center.
In the fourth, Jared Triolo reached on a two-out throwing error by third baseman Manny Machado and stole second base. Cruz drew a full-count walk to put a pair of runners on for Bryan Reynolds, who hit a 370-foot fly ball to left to end the inning.
“I should’ve had a three-run homer, but I didn’t. It sucks,” said Reynolds, who went 0 for 5. “We’ve got to score more runs. We’ve got to find ways to push the runs across, whatever that is.”
Their biggest whiff came in the fifth, when Joey Bart reached on a fielder’s choice, Hayes beat the throw on a dribbler to third and Adam Frazier drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Canario, batting .139 and starting in place of veteran Tommy Pham, went down swinging at three consecutive sweepers by Randy Vasquez to end the frame.
“We’ve got to get a couple of balls to fall, and we did not today,” Shelton said. “We had some situations early with two outs and didn’t get a big hit, and that ended up being magnified.”
Cruz drew a four-pitch walk — his third of the game — in the sixth, but Reynolds swung at a first-pitch slider and grounded into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, one of three by the Padres. The Pirates lead the majors in grounding into double plays, with 34.
“The obvious answer would be too many balls on the ground,” Shelton said. “But, overall, no, I don’t think there’s anything that’s led to that. I mean, we’ve tried to execute some hit-and-runs. We maybe have to continue to do that depending on the situation, depending on who’s pitching. But, yeah, it’s just something I don’t have a good answer for why that stat is so high.”
That put even more pressure on Falter, who had allowed one walk and one hit and retired 11 consecutive batters when Machado drilled a 1-0 slider 391 feet down the left-field line for his third home run to tie the score at 1-1 in the seventh.
After holding the top of the Padres’ order — with All-Stars in Tatis, three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Machado and Xander Bogaerts — to a combined 1 for 11, Falter finished his outing by striking out Oscar Gonzalez and received an ovation as he walked off the mound.
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“To go through eight right-handed hitters — especially the caliber of that group at the top and arguably one of the best left-handed hitters in baseball — and give up two hits,” Shelton said, “he was outstanding.”
But the Pirates went down in order the next two innings, and Tatis Jr. hit a leadoff double to left to put the Padres in scoring position to start the ninth inning. With one out, Tatis stole third base, putting the go-ahead run 90 feet from home plate. Bednar (0-3) got Machado looking at a 98-mph fastball for a called third strike and the second out, but when he threw a 1-0 curveball in the dirt for a wild pitch to Bogaerts, Tatis raced home and his slide beat catcher Bart’s tag for the go-ahead run to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
“That creates a challenge when it’s a tied ballgame in the ninth and he’s on second base,” Bednar said of Tatis. “I worked my butt off to get two outs, then the first pitch just barely gets away and he makes an unbelievable read and steals home. It was an unbelievable play by him.”