As if recovering from a series sweep in Atlanta against one of the best teams in baseball wasn't hard enough already, the Pirates had to do so against the back-to-back champs at PNC Park as the Dodgers came to town for a three-game set.
In a series where Shohei Ohtani and Justin Wrobleski were looming in Games 2 and 3, the opener of this series felt like the one most up for grabs for the Pirates. Paul Skenes toed the rubber against a much inferior opponent in Eric Lauer for LA.
The game started exactly as you could hope for when trying to snap a losing skid. Skenes retired the side in order and the Pirates offense plated two early runs courtesy of a Bryan Reynolds and Ryan O'Hearn back-to-back home run ambush. A packed PNC Park of over 30,000 was on its feet and loud early.
Unfortunately, the offense really fizzled out after that moment. They made Lauer look like a superstar as he went toe-to-toe with Skenes.
The Pirates' only other run in the game came in the ninth inning on a garbage-time RBI single from Marcell Ozuna.
The Dodgers answered with a run of their own in the second inning, after a Mookie Betts double and a Max Muncy single. Kyle Tucker drove in Betts on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead in half at 2-1. Skenes worked his way out of any extra damage in that inning and started to cruise after that.
It was safe to say he was pretty dang close to his old self against a potent lineup. He struck out seven through six complete innings of work. He almost exited with a lead, but a two-out hit from Muncy that Brandon Lowe couldn't corral brought in the tying run and it was 2-2. Skenes followed that up by getting out of the inning, but he was pulled after the sixth while not being in line for a win.
There have been a few games this year where you could write, "Well the starter came out of a close game and the bullpen fumbled it away," but this game was the ultimate version of that.
Skenes exited after six innings in a 2-2 tie, and the bullpen immediately threw the game away.
There are a lot of ugly details about that dreaded seventh inning, but in short, Wilber Dotel entered and was charged with six earned runs without getting a single out. Brandan Bidois then came in relief of him and gave up four more runs. Lots of sloppy defense, mediocre pitching, and lifeless play turned a 2-2 tie into a 12-2 Dodgers lead in just one half-inning. Not great.
The Dodgers would end up winning the opener, the game the Pirates felt as if they had the best odds of winning, by a lopsided 12-3 score.
Game 2 was an instant classic at PNC Park. With the bad vibes from the Braves series and the ugly loss the night before, the injury news surrounding Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin, and the fact that Shohei Ohtani was on the bump, the odds felt heavily stacked against the Pirates.
The Bucs battled and hung tough early. They had a few different threats offensively but could not push a run across. It was almost the opposite story for the Dodgers, as Jared Jones mowed them down for 2.2 scoreless innings. Ohtani nearly broke the scoring open with a two-run blast, but Bryan Reynolds made one of the best catches you will see all season to rob him of a homer and a 2-0 lead. A packed PNC Park erupted as Reynolds crashed into the wall and somehow came away with the baseball.
Jones eventually got tagged for two runs in the following inning, and that deficit felt like a lot more with Ohtani on the mound and dealing. An unlikely hero stepped up for the Pirates in the fourth, as Tyler Callihan launched his first career major league home run into the Allegheny River to make it a 2-1 game. Talk about a memorable first homer. A 427-foot shot off Shohei Ohtani that ended up in the river.
The game stayed tight until the sixth inning, when Ryan Ward delivered what felt like the knockout punch. He crushed a grand slam into the seats above the Clemente Wall off Carmen Mlodzinski to break the game open and give Los Angeles a 6-1 lead.
At that moment, it felt like this Pirates team was reeling in more ways than one. The game was slipping away, the injuries continued to pile up, the bullpen had struggled again, and the bats had gone quiet. Then, the Battlin' Bucs woke up.
Brandon Lowe got things rolling with a huge two-run double off Ohtani to end the superstar's night on a sour note. He ripped a 3-0 pitch into the right field corner and brought the Pirates within three at 6-3.
Bryan Reynolds followed by driving Lowe home, sneaking a ground ball under the glove of Max Muncy at third base. Suddenly it was 6-4 and PNC Park was alive again.
Then came the eighth inning. The place was absolutely electric. Nick Gonzales and Rafael Flores worked walks to start the inning, bringing Tyler Callihan back to the plate in another massive spot. As if his first career homer into the river wasn't enough, the rookie somehow topped it. Callihan crushed a changeup deep into the right field bleachers to give the Pirates an improbable 7-6 lead. In an instant, the entire game flipped on its head and PNC Park was as loud as it has been in well over a decade.
Spencer Horwitz added to the madness later in the inning with a two-run blast to right center, giving the Pirates some much-needed insurance and a 9-6 advantage. Horwitz has become known for his respectfully disrespectful bat flips, but this one may have taken the cake. His bat toss flew so far it looked like it might end up in the Dodgers dugout.
Thankfully, Horwitz provided that insurance because Ohtani refused to let the Dodgers go quietly. He blasted a two-run homer to center field off Gregory Soto, this one not robbable by Reynolds, to cut the lead to 9-8 and send the tension level through the roof.
Soto settled down and retired Andy Pages and Freddie Freeman to end it, locking down a 9-8 Pirates victory and one of the biggest wins on the North Shore in a very, very long time.
After getting blown out in the opener and trailing 6-1 in Game 2, the Pirates suddenly found themselves in position to take the series from the Dodgers with Mitch Keller on the bump in the finale.
Unfortunately, Keller's struggles continued. He gave up a solo home run to none other than Shohei Ohtani, which honestly felt inevitable at some point during this series. That blast was not the biggest issue, though. The third inning completely got away from Keller and the Pirates. Andy Pages singled, Freddie Freeman was hit by a pitch, and Mookie Betts would've added another run had Bryan Reynolds not made his second incredible home run robbery in as many nights. Reynolds was doing everything he could to keep the Pirates in the game.
The Dodgers kept coming. Max Muncy was hit by a pitch and Kyle Tucker followed with a bloop single to drive in two runs and extend the lead to 3-0.
Things only got worse in the fourth. Freeman added an RBI single and Pages came home on a wild pitch from Keller to make it 5-0. Keller was able to escape the inning, but his night was over after just four innings of work. His struggles continue to be a major storyline for this rotation.
The Battlin' Bucs apparently had so much fun mounting a comeback the night before that they decided to give it another shot. Rafael Flores got things started in the fifth inning by blasting his first career home run deep into the Pirates bullpen in center field to get the Bucs on the board. Brandon Lowe followed later in the inning with a two-run homer off left-hander Justin Wrobleski. Lowe continues to put this team on his back day after day, and when that ball landed the Pirates suddenly trailed just 5-3.
Spencer Horwitz kept the momentum rolling with an RBI single later in the inning to pull Pittsburgh within one run. The Bucs were battlin' once again.
Unfortunately, the Dodgers were able to pull away late, courtesy of some sloppy play and more poor relief pitching, which has become an all too familiar theme for this club. Los Angeles carried an 8-4 lead into the eighth inning, but the Pirates had one last push left in them.
Tyler Callihan, fresh off his heroics from the night before, led off the inning with a triple off the Clemente Wall. Jake Mangum and Rafael Flores followed with a pair of hustle doubles to suddenly make it an 8-6 game with nobody out and the tying run coming to the plate. PNC Park was rocking again and for a brief moment it felt like another magical comeback was in the works.
This time, though, the Dodgers slammed the door shut. They worked out of the inning without allowing any further damage, and the Pirates went quietly in the ninth to drop the series.
Final Thoughts:
Losing the series is obviously disappointing, especially after stealing Game 2 in dramatic fashion, but there were still some positives to take away. The Pirates showed a lot of fight against the back-to-back World Series champions and never really looked intimidated by one of baseball's best teams.
The bullpen, however, continues to be a glaring issue. It feels like every close game eventually turns into a high-wire act, and if this team wants to stay in the thick of the Wild Card race, something has to be addressed sooner rather than later.
One of the biggest bright spots from the series was Tyler Callihan. Between his first career home run off Shohei Ohtani, the go-ahead blast in Game 2, and another big night in the finale, Callihan had himself quite the coming out party at PNC Park.
The Pirates will look to bounce back on Friday night against the Miami Marlins as Bucco Luau Weekend gets underway at PNC Park. Braxton Ashcraft is set to face Sandy Alcantara, with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 PM.
