The Pittsburgh Pirates played 104 games before the final game of the three-game series Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
But this one, a 6-5, 10-inning struggle, felt different. Manager Derek Shelton said so, calling the nearly three-hour game “our biggest victory.”
Perhaps Shelton’s remark will turn out to be more than hyperbole, especially if the Pirates find a way to wriggle into the postseason by the margin of one game.
Forced to line up Sunday at Chase Field in Phoenix without three regular starters in a game crucial to playoff hopes, the Pirates turned to some unconventional methods to rally from a 2-1 deficit in the ninth inning. Not only did Rowdy Tellez come off the bench with a problematic back to deliver a clutch hit, but Shelton turned an infielder into an outfielder and a catcher into a first baseman while using all 13 position players. The Pirates scored four times in the 10th, even though only one ball left the infield.
“It was basically all hands on deck,” Joey Bart said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show.
The result was the Pirates moving back above .500 (53-52) and two games behind the New York Mets (55-50) in the race for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League.
With Bryan Reynolds missing his third consecutive game while on bereavement leave and Tellez (back spasms) and Nick Gonzales (groin) injured, the Pirates managed only three hits through the first eight innings. Lost in the offensive futility was another long home run by Oneil Cruz, a career-high 17th. The home run to right field left Cruz’s bat at 109.2 mph and was measured at 407 feet from home plate.
With the Pirates’ bats largely dormant until the ninth inning, the Diamondbacks appeared to be on their way to a 2-1 victory and a three-game series sweep. But Shelton turned to his bench when pinch-hitters Tellez and Joey Bart doubled — the first coming after nine pitches and the second with two outs — to tie the score 2-2.
“Changed the game,” Shelton said of Tellez’s leadoff hit. “Rowdy worked all day (to strengthen his back) to get ready for one AB.”
Yet with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, there was still plenty of work to do.
All the maneuvering forced second baseman Jared Triolo to play right field in the bottom of the ninth inning for the first time in his big-league career, a first for him since 2017 when he was a freshman at the University of Houston. Triolo, who started the game at second base for Gonzales, responded with a diving catch of Jake McCarthy’s looping fly ball for the final out of the inning, sending the game into the 10th.
Also, catcher Yasmani Grandal played first base for the first time since 2019 because Tellez pinch-hit for Connor Joe, the starter. With his back problem, Tellez was unable to play in the field. Grandal responded by fielding two groundballs in crucial situations in the bottom of the extra inning.
“We went through the whole gamut,” Shelton said.
Meanwhile, the Pirates scored four times on two hits to seize a 6-2 lead in the top of the 10th inning after a series of events that included a run overturned on replay review, a bunt single by Ji Hwan Bae, two walks, a wild pitch, hit batter and K’Bryan Hayes’ two-run single.
“That’s a game-changer right there,” Shelton said of Hayes’ two-out hit.
It almost wasn’t enough.
The Diamondbacks scored three times in the bottom of the 10th when Eugenio Suarez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. homered. Pirates left fielder Josh Palacios claimed a fan reaching over the top of the wall interfered with his ability to catch Suarez’s shot, but the two-run homer was upheld on replay review, giving the Pirates two video-tape defeats in one inning.
The score quickly turned from 6-2 to 6-4 to 6-5 after Gurriel homered. Then, Corbin Carroll tripled off Colin Holderman, the Pirates fourth pitcher of the game, and the Diamondbacks were dangerously close to creating another tie. Finally, Holderman got Geraldo Perdomo to ground out to Grandal at first for the game’s final out.
For most of the game, Pirates hitters struggled, striking out 14 times, including all three outs in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings. Every starter struck out at least once.
All but forgotten amidst the wild finish was Mitch Keller keeping the Diamondbacks hitless and scoreless in six of his seven innings. It was his sixth time this season he threw at least seven innings and allowed two or fewer runs.
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His only trouble surfaced in the fourth when the Diamondbacks scored twice on Joc Pederson’s double, McCarthy’s triple and a sacrifice fly by Suarez.
Keller struck out six and retired the final 11 he faced before he was pulled after 97 pitches.
“The sweeper was really elite,” Shelton said. “He kept a really good offense at bay. When he starts to command the ball, it’s going to be scary because the curveball is a really good pitch. The slider’s a good pitch and the fastball he can do some things with.”
Added Keller: “Just trying to fill (the strike zone) up.”
David Bednar, pitching for the first time since July 22, and winning pitcher Aroldis Chapman worked scoreless eighth and ninth innings, making it a team effort from 17 players.
“This was our biggest victory,” Shelton said. “To come back with where we’re at (in the playoff race), the way Mitch pitched, to continue to grind through it, be down to two strikes. Even at the end, Holdy had to battle through it.”
Said Keller: “We could have easily folded over and just lost 2-1, but everybody is still fighting for their at-bats, fighting for the team.”
NOTE: Long before the late-inning drama, Andrew McCutchen singled in the first inning for the 1,639th hit of his career, passing Fred Clarke to move into sole possession of 10th place on the Pirates’ all-time list.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.