Making his first start since July 6, after a bothersome back issue forced him to spend two stints on the injured list, Ke’Bryan Hayes represented the winning run for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the bottom of the ninth.

Facing a full count with two outs and the bases loaded, Hayes saw Detroit Tigers left-hander Tyler Holton throw a changeup from the same arm slot he had seen two pitches earlier. Where Hayes fouled off that cutter, he trusted this one also would be above the strike zone.

Instead of drawing an RBI walk, Hayes was stunned when home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz called a third strike to end the Pirates’ rally as the Tigers won, 6-3, on Wednesday afternoon before 14,370 at PNC Park.

Hayes, who drove in the Pirates’ first run with a sacrifice fly, could only smile and shake his head when told that the pitch should have been a ball. That’s baseball, Hayes said, shrugging it off.

“I felt like I had a pretty good at-bat going down,” Hayes said. “I guess I should’ve walked, so I would’ve kept the line moving. Just unfortunate that it was called, but it happens and just got to keep going.”

The Pirates rallied with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against Tigers closer Alex Lange, who struck out the first two batters he faced before walking Connor Joe, giving up a single to Bryan Reynolds and a full-count walk to Andrew McCutchen to load the bases. Henry Davis drew a four-pitch walk to score Reynolds and cut it to 6-3.

Hayes worked another full count before the called third strike.

“I trust his eyes on that one,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who noted he hadn’t watched a replay. “You play the full nine innings. We did a good job. We brought the winning run to the plate, and they played the full nine innings. I trust Ke’ there.”

The Pirates overcame a slow start at the plate against Tigers lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (7-5), who worked his changeup off a cutter to deliver a quality start by allowing two runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out five in six innings.

The Tigers got an early lead when Riley Greene drove Osvaldo Bido’s 0-1 changeup 395 feet to right-center for his ninth home run to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

The Pirates wasted no time tying the score. Reynolds singled to right, advanced to third on McCutchen’s double to the right field corner and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Hayes.

In the second inning, Jason Delay hit a two-out single and tried to score on Joe’s double down the left-field line but was thrown out when shortstop Javier Baez took the throw from Akil Baddoo and fired a strike to catcher Eric Haase to get a sliding Delay out at the plate.

Bido was yanked after a rough start in the fourth, when he walked Kerry Carpenter, hit Matt Vierling with a pitch and gave up an RBI single to Baez that broke the tie. Bido allowed four runs in three innings, his second consecutive short start.

“We can’t walk and hit a guy,” Shelton said. “We walk and hit a guy and then we give up two-strike hit, two-strike hit, two-strike hit. We have to be able to execute pitches with two strikes, and we can’t give away free passes.”

Lefty Ryan Borucki replaced Bido, but the Tigers scored after Nick Maton’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners and pinch hitter Zack Short hit a two-run single for a 4-1 lead.

The Pirates cut it to 4-2 in the fifth on McCutchen’s RBI single to score Alika Williams, but Davis popped out to first to strand runners on first and third. Davis is hitless in his last 21 at-bats but has drawn four walks. In Davis, Nick Gonzales and Endy Rodriguez, the trio of Pirates rookies went a combined 0 for 8.

“We gotta get them ready to hit,” Shelton said. “It looks right now like they’re late on the fastball. We gotta get them back to the point where they’re on the fastball.”

Vierling doubled off Dauri Moreta to start the sixth and scored on Short’s two-out double to stretch the Tigers’ lead to 5-2. Rogers hit a Yerry De Los Santos 2-2 slider 406 feet to right for his 13th homer to give the Tigers a 6-2 lead in the eighth.

The Pirates stranded two runners in the eighth, when pinch hitter Josh Palacios fouled off three pitches before being frozen by Jason Foley’s full-count sinker for a called third strike to end the inning.

McCutchen, who went 3 for 4 with a walk, used the ninth-inning rally as an example of how the Pirates were in the game at the end and had a chance to win.

“Most games, we have an opportunity,” McCutchen said. “That’s the difference between just getting beat. Most times when we lose, we have an opportunity. We have a chance and we’re able to put ourselves in position to get the big hit or continue the inning, score the run, whatever.

“The end of the day, we’re there, right in it: Bases loaded, two outs, Ke’Bryan’s up. That changeup’s a little lower, maybe he connects with it. Maybe it’s another ball in. It’s just the little things like that. Hold your head up high in games knowing that we lost, but we were in it.”

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