Andrew McCutchen delivered a no-doubt, three-run home run, and Jack Suwinski removed all doubts about the Pittsburgh Pirates’ good fortune by robbing the Los Angeles Dodgers of one.
When Mookie Betts sent Robert Stephenson’s full-count slider 402 feet to left field, Suwinski reached over the wall to snag the ball that would have given the Dodgers the lead in the sixth inning.
The Pirates’ luck ran out in the eighth, however, as Suwinski couldn’t save Colin Holderman when Chris Taylor hit a three-run blast to the left-field bleachers and McCutchen came up empty with the bases loaded.
Behind Taylor’s homer, the Dodgers rallied from a five-run deficit for an 8-7 victory Tuesday night to snap the Pirates’ MLB-best seven-game winning streak in the opener of their three-game series before 10,560 at PNC Park.
In a game the first-place Pirates (16-8) committed three errors, Suwinski’s standout play was the defensive highlight.
“It was an unbelievable catch. He got back to the wall, did everything right and got up and kept us in the game because of that catch,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “There’s nothing Jack could’ve done on the homer. Cutch’s had good at-bats. The ball just beat him a little bit. We gave away too many opportunities, then we just did not execute pitches. That ended up being the difference in the game.”
Pirates right-hander Johan Oviedo allowed four earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out four in 5 1/3 innings to outduel Dodgers starter Noah Syndergaard, who gave up seven runs on nine hits in four innings.
The Dodgers scored a pair of unearned runs against Oviedo in the first inning. Freddie Freeman drew a walk, and Jason Heyward reached on interference by Pirates catcher Austin Hedges, and both advanced into scoring position on James Outman’s groundout to first. Miguel Vargas drove in both runners with a bloop single to right for a 2-0 lead.
The Pirates answered when Tucupita Marcano singled to right, then scored on Carlos Santana’s RBI single to center to cut it to 2-1. Suwinski beat out a dribbler to third to put runners on first and second, but David Peralta made a diving catch on Connor Joe’s liner to left to end the scoring threat.
Ji Hwan Bae beat out a grounder and stole second base. After Syndergaard hit Hedges in the right wrist with a pitch, Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a two-run single down the left-field line to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
Bae sparked a four-run fourth inning by beating out another infield single, stealing second again and scoring on a single to right by Hedges. Hayes followed with a single to left, and McCutchen hit his fifth home run, sending Syndergaard’s 2-1 sinker 381 feet to right for a three-run shot and a 7-2 Pirates lead.
The Dodgers cut it to 7-3 in the fifth when Chris Taylor singled, advanced to third on a pair of groundouts and scored on Freddie Freeman’s single to short that Rodolfo Castro threw away for the Pirates’ third error.
Oviedo was shooting for a quality start but ran into trouble in the sixth, when Outman led off with a double to left and scored when Michael Busch singled to center to cut it to 7-4. After Chris Taylor dropped a pop fly into shallow right for a single, Oviedo was replaced by Robert Stephenson.
The Dodgers narrowed it to 7-5 on Austin Barnes’ sacrifice fly to center that drove in Miguel Vargas. But Suwinski robbed Betts of a would-be three-run homer, prompting applause from Stephenson on the mound as Oviedo raised his arms in the dugout.
“Man, I was still impressed by the catch,” Oviedo said. “It was a great moment. He saved all three runs and gave the team a chance to stay in front. It’s amazing to watch those kind of plays happen.”
Suwinski knew he was close to the wall when he felt the warning track dirt below him and got turned around but believed he had a chance to make the catch.
“You’re definitely tracking that and know how close you are and where you think the ball is going to end up, getting to that position,” Suwinski said. “You always (think), ‘Did I really catch that?’ It all happens pretty fast, kind of fast and slow at the same time because you have taken a lot of reps doing things like that. It’s a pretty cool feeling.”
The celebration was short-lived as Peralta reached on a forceout and Busch drew a walk off Holderman in the top of the eighth. Taylor hit a 2-0 sinker 422 feet to left for his fifth home run, giving the Dodgers an 8-7 lead.
“He’s got to get it down,” Shelton said. “Just lack of execution there in the eighth and it ended up costing us.”
The Pirates loaded the bases against lefty Caleb Ferguson in the bottom of the eighth, when Bae hit into a forceout at second — the Pirates lost a challenge that Castro beat the throw — pinch hitter Mark Mathias drew a full-count walk and Marcano was hit by a pitch. McCutchen worked a 3-1 count then swung at a fastball high and inside, popping out to the catcher Barnes in foul territory.
After Trayce Thompson drew a walk against Duane Underwood Jr. in the ninth, Outman delivered his second double to put a pair of runners in scoring position. But Vargas grounded to Hayes at third, who threw home to get Thompson out, and Santana snared a bouncer by Peralta to prevent another run from scoring.
“We had a 7-2 lead and did not play clean,” Shelton said. “When you do not play clean and give a world championship-caliber team extra opportunities, they capitalized on them. They continued to chip away and we had opportunities at the end of the game and we didn’t capitalize on it.”
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