Ji Hwan Bae hits 3-run home run in bottom of 9th to lift Pirates to walk-off win over Astros

A pair of Pittsburgh Pirates sluggers went from scuffling to swinging a sword after hitting home runs that cleared the right-field stands.

Jack Suwinski snapped out of a funk with a two-run homer in the second inning, and Ji-Man Choi went deep for the second consecutive game with a solo shot in the sixth.

But it was Ji Hwan Bae who delivered the dagger.

Bae hit a three-run home run off Houston Astros All-Star closer Ryan Pressly in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Pirates to a 7-4 walk-off win Tuesday night before 9,996 at PNC Park.

Bae and Choi became the first South Koreans to homer in the same game in major league history.

“I feel very bad because I didn’t get the spotlight. He took it,” Choi said through translator Daniel Park, breaking into a big smile. “All jokes aside, I feel very happy for him, and I knew he was going to do it for us.”

Bae punctuated the play with a celebratory bat flip and jumping onto home plate as he was swarmed by his teammates. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said it showed how much Bae loves the limelight.

“When there’s pressure,” Bae said, through Park, “I feel like I’m more concentrated.”

Swinging an imaginary sword started as a celebration for singles and doubles, Mitch Keller explained in a Pirates Twitter video, but it became so popular that Pirates players wanted an actual prop. A fan who dresses up in pirates costumes gifted a rubber replica so the Pirates could swing it in the dugout after dingers.

“They actually had a sword that they gave to us, so it’s kind of a cooler deal there,” Keller said. “Now it’s our home run sword, so, hopefully, we can have a lot of those.”

The Astros, however, swung theirs first.

After striking out leadoff batter Chas McCormick, Keller gave up a solo home run to Alex Bregman, who sent a 1-0 sinker 408 feet into the left-field bleachers to give the Astros a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Kyle Tucker started the second inning by pulling Keller’s 0-1 cutter 393 feet over the Clemente Wall in right field for his fourth home run and a 2-0 Astros lead. Keller recovered to allow only four other hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings.

The Pirates tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. With two outs, Astros starter Cristian Javier hit Rodolfo Castro with a pitch. When Javier threw a fastball at the letters to Suwinski, he drove it 399 feet for his first homer of the season.

Suwinski was in a 1-for-15 slump (.067) through his first five games, though his second-inning sacrifice fly drove in the lone run in Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

The Pirates got to Javier in the bottom of the sixth, when Choi led off by driving a full-count fastball 418 feet for a 3-2 lead. It was Choi’s second homer, following a 1-for-19 start to the season, after he took Framber Valdez deep in Monday’s 8-2 loss.

Ke’Bryan Hayes followed with a one-out double to right, then stole third and scored on Canaan Smith-Njigba’s liner to left for a sacrifice fly to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead.

“When any game goes from 3-2 to 4-2, especially against a team like this, it changes the whole dynamic,” Shelton said. “They had to get three hits to tie it, instead of one swing of the bat, which they can do very quickly. That’s a huge play in this game and a professional at bat by a young hitter, which really stands out.”

The Pirates turned to their bullpen, getting scoreless innings from Duane Underwood Jr. and Colin Holderman but David Bednar got into a jam with one out in the ninth when Mauricio Dubon reached on Castro’s throwing error, his second error in as many games at shortstop.

Astros pinch hitter David Hensley singled to center and Chas McCormick doubled down the left field line to drive in Dubon and Hensley to tie the score at 4-4. After getting Bregman to ground out to third, Bednar intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez — who had struck out in his previous three at bats — before striking out Jose Abreu.

Castro started the rally by leading off the bottom of the ninth with a single off Pressly that dropped along the right-field line. After Suwinski struck out, Shelton had Andrew McCutchen pinch-hit for Jason Delay to the delight of the crowd.

McCutchen delivered a single to left, putting runners on first and second for Bae, who drilled Pressly’s 2-2 changeup over the Clemente Wall in right field for his first career walk-off home run.

It wasn’t lost on Bae that his first career home run was over the famed Green Monster at Fenway Park, and his first home run at PNC Park cleared the Clemente Wall in right field. Bae dedicated the victory to Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz, who fractured his left ankle and underwent surgery on Sunday.

“It’s a huge honor. These kind of ballparks are only what I used to see in the games when I was younger,” Bae said. “I want to honor Oneil for our win.”