Nick Gonzales leads way with 1st triple, home run as Pirates pound Padres

The Pittsburgh Pirates showed off their City Connect uniforms, featuring gold hats and jerseys and black pants that were a historic nod to their flamboyant 1979 World Series champions.

The old heads shined in the new threads, but the rookie stole the show.

The Pirates got three hits from 36-year-old Andrew McCutchen, two RBIs from 37-year-old Carlos Santana, a solid start from 43-year-old Rich Hill and slump-busting knocks from Rodolfo Castro, Jack Suwinski and Austin Hedges.

Nick Gonzales got both his first major league hit with an RBI triple and his first career home run, as the Pirates pulled away from the San Diego Padres for a 9-4 win Tuesday night before 16,539 at PNC Park.

Gonzales called the experience “amazing.”

“Obviously, to get a win and then obviously to have my first hit and first home run is something special,” Gonzales said. “But to get the win, I think, is more important, obviously. We’re all excited here.”

Hill (7-7) allowed four runs on nine hits with two walks and four strikeouts in six innings, and Roansy Contreras earned his first career save by tossing three scoreless innings in relief for the Pirates (36-42).

After going 3 for 25 with runners in scoring position and scoring 10 runs in the four-game series at Miami, the Pirates pounded 16 hits and went 7 for 15 with runners in scoring position against the Padres.

“We play together like that and we play with that intensity. That’s who we are,” Hill said. “That aggressiveness and that will to win, it’s special. I’ve been around for awhile and I’ve been around really good teams and I know what it takes to win. Seeing these guys come together collectively is something that’s special.”

With scheduled starter Yu Darvish scratched because of an illness, the Padres (37-42) turned to reliever Reiss Knehr, a right-hander who had allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings of relief this season.

The Padres gave Knehr a cushion by scoring three runs on five hits off Hill in the second inning. Manny Machado ripped a leadoff double down the right field line, then scored on a single by Gary Sanchez for a 1-0 lead. Brandon Dixon and Trent Grisham reached on back-to-back, two-out singles, and both scored on Ha-Seong Kim’s single to center for a 3-0 Padres lead.

The Pirates answered with three runs off Knehr in the bottom of the second to tie the game. Suwinski drew a leadoff walk and Castro ended an 0-for-18 stretch with a single to right before Ji Hwan Bae hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Suwinski to cut it to 3-1.

Gonzales, who made his major league debut Friday at Miami, smacked Knehr’s full-count fastball at the top of the strike zone off the Clemente Wall for a triple to score Castro.

It was the first big-league hit and RBI for Gonzales, the seventh overall pick of the 2020 MLB Draft who was making his first start at shortstop for the Pirates in his PNC Park debut. Hedges, who was batting .160, drew a four-pitch walk to put runners on the corners and McCutchen lined a single to left to drive in Gonzales for his first run.

“Cutch and Santana in the middle there got us going with big hits,” manager Derek Shelton said, “and then the fact that we just kept playing the game and narrowing the gap.”

The Pirates opened the third inning with back-to-back home runs by Santana and Suwinski for a 5-3 lead. After Santana sent Knehr’s first-pitch fastball 394 feet over the Clemente Wall for his seventh homer, Suwinski smacked a full-count fastball on the outside corner 421 feet to right-center. It was his first hit since a two-homer game in an 11-3 loss at the Chicago Cubs on June 13 and ended an 0-for-29 stretch.

It marked the seventh set of back-to-back homers for the Pirates this season, the first since Santana and Suwinski did so against Tommy Hunter in the eighth inning of a 14-7 win over the New York Mets on June 9.

Drew Carlton replaced Knehr but ran into trouble in the fourth. Hedges reached on catcher’s interference by Sanchez, advanced to second on a Josh Palacios sacrifice bunt, to third on McCutchen’s single to left and scored when Henry Davis sliced a single to right for a 6-3 Pirates lead. Santana singled to load the bases but Carlton got Suwinski to pop out and Castro swinging at a changeup to limit the damage.

Hill didn’t give up another run until the sixth, when Xander Bogaerts doubled off the wall in right-center, advanced to third on a Sanchez groundout and scored when 42-year-old Nelson Cruz hit a line drive that almost took Hill’s head off to cut it to 6-4.

Dixon doubled to left to put runners on second and third with two outs but Hill was ready when Grisham hit his 101st pitch for a bouncer back to the lefty, who snared it to escape the jam.

The Pirates increased their lead to 8-4 in the sixth when McCutchen singled, advanced to second on Adrian Morjeon’s wild pitch and scored on Santana’s single, and Santana scored on a Castro single.

Palacios prevented the Padres from scoring another run when he climbed the short left field wall to rob Juan Soto of a home run for the final out in the seventh.

“That was an unbelievable catch,” Shelton said. “From our vantage point you can’t see it so I had to go back in and watch the replay of it. But to get to the wall, the body control, it’s a great play, it’s an unbelievable play to contort like that.”

Gonzales led off the bottom of the seventh by crushing Mejeon’s 2-2 fastball 442 feet off the batter’s eye in center for his first homer and a 9-4 lead, an impressive feat on a night where he had seven total bases.

“That’s the reason he’s here,” McCutchen said of Gonzales. “We know what he can do. He knows what he can do. It’s nice for him to be able to do that here — get the triple, get the hit and the RBIs, the homer, too. He’s fun to watch. It’s part of the reason he’s here, to help impact this ball club. He can impact it in many ways. He was able to showcase part of that today.”