Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly lamented a theme of poor situational hitting in many of his club’s losses thus far following Friday’s series-opening defeat in San Francisco.
But in a 13-3 blowout win Saturday at Oracle Park, the Pirates got as much clutch batting as they could have wanted and more, as the club combined for a season-high 20 hits and went 10 for 22 with runners in scoring position.
“I thought we had really good at-bats early on and continued throughout the whole game,” Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show, “going the other way, doing the things that we need to do to score runs.”
Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 2.77 ERA) was sharp over seven innings, allowing one run on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
Every Pirates batter collected at least one hit, with Nick Gonzales and Joey Bart getting four apiece. Oneil Cruz went 3 for 6 with three runs, Brandon Lowe was 2 for 4 with four RBIs and Konnor Griffin had a pair of RBIs in the win.
The Pirates (22-18) were held scoreless through four frames against Giants starter Landen Roupp, but they did manage to jack up his pitch count to 94, leading to his departure in favor of former Pirate Ryan Borucki with no outs in the fifth.
“Any time you can get (a starter) into the 90s, like it was after four — (Roupp) goes back out, and then to even drive the pitch count of the bullpen up, too — again, I thought the approach was awesome,” Kelly said.
Borucki’s outing immediately got shaky after Bart got aboard via an infield hit that was originally called an out before a successful challenge.
Cruz followed with a single, and after he stole second, Lowe made it 1-0 with a sacrifice fly.
Moments later, the Pirates took a 2-0 lead, courtesy of a Bryan Reynolds single into left field, plating Cruz.
In the bottom of the fifth, San Francisco (15-24) got one back, trimming the deficit to 2-1 when rookie Bryce Eldridge led off with his first MLB home run, a solo shot into McCovey Cove.
With one out in the sixth, Spencer Horwitz walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Ryan Walker.
Griffin then scored him with a soft single into center field, putting the Pirates back up 3-1.
Then, Bart, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft by San Francisco, scored Griffin from second with an RBI single, making it 4-1.
A six-run seventh busted the game open.
Following back-to-back singles by Ryan O’Hearn and Gonzales, Horwitz made it 5-1 on what was ruled an RBI double as left fielder Heliot Ramos lost the ball in the stadium lights.
Gonzales, having taken third base on the play, was soon scored by a Griffin sacrifice fly, as the Pirates took a 6-1 advantage.
The Pirates were not done there, though, as Bart’s third hit of the night scored Horwitz to make it 7-1.
The first three runs in the seventh were scored against another former Pirate: JT Brubaker, who was removed with two outs.
“We just kept it going,” Bart said. “I felt like everybody battled with two strikes. We put the ball in play. You put the ball in play, good things happen. We piled on top of each other and were able to score some runs there and keep it moving.”
The pitching change didn’t stop the Pirates’ momentum, as Lowe tripled off of Gregory Santos, scoring a pair to make it 9-1.
Santos then couldn’t field a sharp grounder off the bat of O’Hearn, allowing Lowe to score and making it a 10-1 game.
Ashcraft stayed on for a quick seventh, finishing at 80 pitches.
“He killed it, just the way he was able to attack the zone,” Kelly said. “I know that pitch count was low. … Maybe he could have kept going, but on a cool night, it just wasn’t worth it to continue to push it. He did a great job.”
In the ninth, the Pirates racked up five more hits and scored three runs as San Francisco inserted infielder Christian Koss to pitch.
Pirates reliever Cam Sanders had an erratic bottom of the ninth, walking three, hitting a batter and allowing two runs.