PHOENIX — In their first two games in the desert, the Pirates’ offense was dying of thirst, scoring just four runs, three of which came Tuesday in quasi-garbage time of a loss.
On Wednesday night, in a 6-4 win, they found their oasis.
It started in the third inning, when outfielder Ben Gamel ripped a two-out double to the wall in right-center, scoring Kevin Newman and Jason Delay to take an early two-run lead. In the fourth, they scored another rather creatively, with Delay getting caught in a rundown on a pick-off throw between first and second, which allowed Tucupita Marcano to scamper home before Delay was tagged out, ending the inning.
Then, in the fifth, they just strung things together with two outs. Rodolfo Castro, surely eager to put Tuesday night’s phone snafu behind him, got it going with a deep fly ball to right. Diamondbacks outfielder Daulton Varsho leapt at the wall and nearly made a tremendous catch but lost it, and Castro made his way to third for a triple. The next man up, Greg Allen, smoked a double to right-center to score Castro, then Marcano drove Allen in with a single.
Gamel added another in the sixth, reaching on a fielder’s choice with one out and runners on the corners for his third RBI of the game.
That was it for the Pirates. Six runs isn’t exactly a fountain of production, but after the first two games of the series, anything more would have sufficed.
All the while, right-hander Mitch Keller did enough on the mound. He was actually quite impressive through the opening three innings, allowing only one baserunner with a leadoff single in the first. He erased that damage with a double play, though.
That’s become a noticeable trend for Keller since he added a two-seam fastball to his arsenal. Since May 31, his first game with the pitch, he’s induced 14 double plays, the most in MLB during that span.
Keller did get a little banged up later on in his outing. The second time through the order, he hit a batter to lead off the fourth, allowed consecutive singles to plate a run, then permitted another on a sacrifice fly. Keller bounced back with a scoreless inning in the fifth, though two of those three outs came on hard-hit balls to the outfield. He was chased in the sixth after giving up two more singles.
So, it wasn’t as good of an outing as it could have been, but it should be noted Keller didn’t allow any extra-base hits. More importantly, he held the Diamondbacks at bay just enough to allow his offense to carry the load.
From there, it was relatively straightforward. Colin Holderman shut the Diamondbacks down for the rest of the sixth and the entirety of the seventh, and Wil Crowe tossed a stress-free eighth inning.
Of course, though, nothing can be quite that easy. In the ninth, Crowe loaded the bases with nobody out on two singles and a walk. Then, hilarity broke out.
Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly grounded to third. Ke’Bryan Hayes threw to Castro for the out at second, then Castro threw to shortstop Kevin Newman covering third to get the lead runner, Emmanuel Rivera, who was caught in no man’s land. A half-hearted rundown broke out, as Newman first backed up to third base. There was no force out there, though, because the runner on second was already out. Rivera just stood there, and eventually, Newman jogged to tag him out near second. Everyone on the field appeared to be confused, but after review, Rivera never got back to second, standing a bit off the bag, and it was ruled a double play.
The Pirates then brought on left-hander Eric Stout, who got the final out.
Truly, it goes to show that escaping the desert isn’t as simple as it sounds.
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