Bailey Falter exits early but Pirates pound season-best 18 hits to beat Angels

The Pittsburgh Pirates started their West Coast trip with a visit to the lost-and-found.

They found their offense with a season-best 18 hits against the Los Angeles Angels, but might have lost a starting pitcher in the process. The homecoming for Pirates lefty Bailey Falter’s – a native of Chino Hills, Calif. – was short-lived when he was removed after four innings with low back tightness.

The Pirates had six players with multiple hits and went 7 for 17 with runners in scoring position to snap a three-game losing streak with a 9-3 win Tuesday night at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

The Pirates (9-15) topped their previous season-high of 14 hits in a 10-3 win over the Washington Nationals on April 14 at PNC Park. Bryan Reynolds, Tommy Pham and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had three hits apiece, and Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen and Joey Bart had two each.

Falter allowed three runs on five hits without a walk while striking out five on 65 pitches over four innings, but the bullpen kept the Angels scoreless over the final five innings. Chase Shugart (1-0) relieved Falter and had three strikeouts in a pair of perfect innings to earn his first major league win.

Angels starter Jose Soriano got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning by getting Cruz to ground out to second base. But the Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Bart and Ke’Bryan Hayes. With the bases loaded again, Soriano got Pham to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

Pham saved a run in the second when he chased down a line drive by Jo Adell in left with Nolan Schanuel at first base. Taylor Ward cut the Angels’ deficit in half in the third. When Falter left a 1-0 sinker over the middle, Ward sent it 403 feet to left field for his sixth home run.

Cruz and Reynolds hit successive singles to right field with one out in the fourth, and McCutchen followed by smacking a 2-2 sinker 417 feet to left-center for a three-run home run and 5-1 Pirates lead. That was it for Soriano, who allowed five runs on eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.

The Angels answered in the bottom of the fourth. Jorge Soler doubled to right-center, advanced to third on a single by Logan O’Hoppe and scored on Schanuel’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-2. Jo Adell drilled a double down the third base line that ricocheted in the corner, scoring O’Hoppe from first to cut the Pirates’ lead to 5-3.

But Frazier drew his second walk, then raced to third and beat Mike Trout’s throw on Pham’s bloop single to right. Angels third baseman Kevin Newman fired directly to second base to get Pham out, but Kiner-Falefa hit a comebacker off the glove of lefty Garrett McDaniels for an infield RBI single that scored Frazier for a 6-3 lead.

Frazier led off the seventh by hitting a fly ball to right-center that dropped when Adell and Trout collided, allowing Frazier to reach second. Kiner-Falefa reached on another infield grounder, this one overturned after a review, but Michael Darrell-Hicks got a pair of strikeouts to prevent any runs from scoring.

When Ward and Trout drew walks against Justin Lawrence in the eighth, Pirates manager Derek Shelton wasn’t taking any chances. He turned to Dennis Santana, who struck out Soler on three sliders.

The Pirates padded their lead to 7-3 in the ninth, when Frazier drew his third walk, advanced to second on Pham’s single and scored on a ground-rule double down the left field line by Kiner-Falefa. Reynolds hit a two-run single to right for a 9-3 lead. Lefty Ryan Borucki got the final three outs, with Pham making a catch against the wall to rob Adell of a home run to end the game.