PITTSBURGH_The San Diego Padres held their breath tightly as replay reviews of Carlos Asuaje's and Yangervis Solarte's wall-scraping homers went their way Friday night. There was no doubt about the ball that Gregory Polanco bounced into the Allegheny River.
His seventh-inning, pinch-hit blast off Kirby Yates proved the death knell in an eventful 10-6 loss to open a 10-game road trip: A fast-moving storm delayed the start for two hours and five minutes, Travis Wood started the game with four scoreless innings before his bid for a second win unraveled and the Pirates burned through five Padres relievers in an affair that dragged into Saturday morning.
Polanco's blast answered the last of the Padres' homers, a solo shot from Manuel Margot in a two-run seventh that opened a 6-4 lead for the Padres' remade relief corps.
A key arm in that lot, Yates struck out Josh Harrison to start the Pirates' half of the seventh.
Then Andrew McCutchen singled, David Freese doubled to right and Polanco sent a 93 mph fastball out of the park on a 106 mph, 434-foot line to right.
AT&T Sportsnet's shots of the ball floating in the river as fireworks reflected off the water painted an even clearer picture than Statcast's readings.
Balls simply don't land there all that often.
In fact, it was just 43rd homer to splash into the Allegheny River in PNC Park's 16-year history. Two of them came off the bat of Polanco, one of 29 players to accomplish the feat.
Yates allowed three more runs before the Padres exited the seventh trailing 10-6.
Wood allowed four runs on six hits and two walks in five-plus innings. All four runs crossed the plate after the Royals castoff opened the game with four shutout innings of one-hit ball.
Acquired on July 24 in a six-player deal that sent Trevor Cahill, Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter to the Royals, Wood helped his cause when he hustled on a tapper to third base in the fifth inning. He rounded first base and Austin Hedges scored from second when Freese airmailed the throw to first and Wood later trotted home on Asuaje's second career homer to right-center.
Asuaje did, too _ but only after racing into a called out at third as McCutchen pulled the ball off the wall and threw it back into the infield. After a brief replay review, umpires awarded Asuaje with a two-run homer that opened a 3-0 lead.
An inning later, another replay review went in the Padres' favor: Solarte's wall-scraper to right-center was upheld for his 11th homer of the season.
