Vince Velasquez exits early, Andrew McCutchen homers late as White Sox snap Pirates' win streak

Vince Velasquez got goosebumps in anticipation of making his first start for the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, and the right-hander had extra motivation in facing his former Chicago White Sox teammates.

What Velasquez didn’t have was control.

Velasquez was pulled in the third inning after allowing five runs on six hits and four walks, throwing eight consecutive balls at one point and eliciting a Bronx cheer from the crowd when he finally threw a strike.

The White Sox pounded Pirates pitchers for 14 hits to snap their four-game winning streak with an 11-5 victory Saturday night before 21,162 at PNC Park.

Andrew McCutchen hit a 350-foot solo home run off Reynaldo Lopez to right field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, his first as a Pirate since Sept. 26, 2017. McCutchen homered twice in the 10-1 win over the Orioles in that game, including his first career grand slam.

Chicago had six players with multiple hits and four with two RBIs, as 7-8-9 hitters Yasmani Grandal, Oscar Colas and Elvis Andrus combined to drive in six runs. Andrew Vaughn scored four runs.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, when McCutchen hit a two-out double down the right-field line, then scored on Carlos Santana’s single to right.

The White Sox answered in the second, when Vaughn hit a leadoff single, reached second on a Gavin Sheets walk, advanced to third when Grandal grounded into a double play and scored on a Colas single to left to tie the score.

Tim Anderson hit his third double of the series to start the third, tagged to third base on a Luis Robert deep fly to center and scored on Andrew Benintendi’s single to left to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead.

Velasquez got into more trouble, walking Vaughn and Sheets on nine pitches, including eight straight balls, to load the bases. After an awkward landing, Velasquez got a mound visit from manager Derek Shelton and trainer Rafael Freitas. Then he threw a wild pitch, allowing Benintendi to score from third to make it 3-1, and gave up a two-run single to Grandal as the White Sox stretched their lead to 5-1.

After Velasquez walked Colas on a full-count fastball, Shelton finally pulled the plug and brought in Chase De Jong. Velasquez (0-2) drew boos as he walked off the field.

The Pirates added a run in the third, when Oneil Cruz singled to left, stole second base, reached third on Mike Clevinger’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Bryan Reynolds, his sixth consecutive game with an RBI.

De Jong loaded the bases in the fifth, and Andrus’ sacrifice fly to right scored Vaughn for a 6-2 White Sox lead but struck out Anderson to minimize the damage.

The Pirates answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Cruz drew a leadoff walk, went to third on Reynolds’ broken-bat single and scored on McCutchen’s sacrifice fly to right. Reynolds stole second and scored on a line drive to center by Santana, who celebrated his 37th birthday with three hits and two RBIs.

Clevinger allowed eight hits and was pulled after giving up a double to Rodolfo Castro with one out in the fifth. With the tying run at the plate, Joe Kelly got Jason Delay to ground out, then struck out Cruz.

The White Sox padded their lead in the seventh, scoring five runs on three hits each against lefty Rob Zastryzny and righty Duane Underwood Jr., including a two-run single by Robert.

The Pirates didn’t record a 1-2-3 inning until lefty rookie Jose Hernandez did so in the eighth and ninth.