From Sweep to Surge: Pirates Pour it on Reds Again to Clinch Series Win

Photo provided by Eddie Provident

PITTSBURGH — Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals to begin a seven-game homestand.

The Pirates were swept in four games as part of a five-game losing streak and fell to the cellar of the National League Central with a 16-16 record.

With no time to waste, the Pirates quickly flipped the script against the Cincinnati Reds to start a three-game series. After a 9-1 win in the first game of the series on Friday night, the Pirates exploded even more on Saturday for a resounding 17-7 victory.

“Yeah, we won, so it was fun,” Ryan O’Hearn said following Saturday’s win. “Sometimes they get out of hand a little bit but it’s fun to put a bunch of points on the board. Had a good offensive day.”

The Pirates’ 17 runs were a season-high while their 19 hits were also the most they’ve had in a game this year. While both totals are impressive, the team’s greatest feat was drawing 11 walks, including seven in a row in the third inning to force home three runs.

The Pirates tied a major league record by drawing seven-consecutive free passes, which had been done two other times.

“It was staying in the middle of the plate, being really stingy with what we were looking for and really, really being stingy,” manager Don Kelly said on the approach. “When we get in trouble, we try to do too much and go on the edges. I thought we did a real good job, especially in that inning, of shrinking the zone and making them throw it over the middle.”

The Pirates scored five times in that third inning, one of three frames in which they touched home five times. After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first, Pittsburgh strung together five hits and plated five runs in the bottom of the inning. They also sent 10 men to the plate as part of a five-run fourth.