PITTSBURGH _ Life was good, relatively speaking, July 27. Gerrit Cole threw a complete game, the Pirates won, 10-1, and they moved to 52-48, after winning six of their past nine. Then they lost six of the next nine, including a disastrous 1-5 road trip, and entered this series against the San Diego Padres one game better than .500.
During the weekend series against the Cincinnati Reds, manager Clint Hurdle changed the lineup, and the tweaks continued Tuesday. For the fourth game in a row, Josh Harrison hit leadoff, Starling Marte hit second and John Jaso dropped to sixth. Tuesday he added one more wrinkle _ the return of Gregory Polanco.
While dealing with left shoulder soreness that affected his throwing but not his hitting, Polanco had not started a game since Aug. 3. Tuesday, Hurdle batted him cleanup.
Polanco never had batted fourth in the starting lineup in his major league career. In his debut, it suited him just fine.
Polanco hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in a 6-4 win against the San Diego Padres at PNC Park. The homer, his 16th, gave him the team lead. He also leads the team in on-base-plus-slugging percentage as his breakout third season continues.
Polanco most frequently has hit second and third this season. He hit sixth for the first month, them moved to third in early May. Third became second in mid-June, when Andrew McCutchen moved from second to his customary No. 3 spot.
The homer came as part of a nine-batter, four-run fifth inning, which began with the game tied at 2-2. Harrison singled and McCutchen walked before Padres starter Luis Perdomo got ahead of Polanco 0-2. Perdomo left a fastball belt-high over the outside corner, and Polanco pulled it into the final row of seats in right-center field. Three more hits, including Francisco Cervelli's RBI double, extended the Pirates' lead.
In his previous major league start, Chad Kuhl pitched the first third of an 18-inning victory against the Washington Nationals: six brilliant innings, during which he allowed no runs and one hit and struck out five without walking a batter. He returned to the minors and left his first start there after one inning because of an issue with his right triceps.
Nine days later, he returned to the mound and allowed one run in six innings, with six strikeouts and no walks. Tuesday, he allowed two runs and five hits in six innings.
Kuhl was on his way to a scoreless first before McCutchen extended it. After a two-out walk to Yangervis Solarte, Alex Dickerson came to the plate. The Pirates drafted Dickerson in the third round in 2011, and he was the Florida State League player of the year in 2012. After hitting .288/.337/.494 with 17 homers for Class AA Altoona in 2013, the Pirates traded him to San Diego for Jaff Decker and Miles Mikolas.
Batting cleanup Tuesday night, Dickerson lined a ball to center, slightly over McCutchen's head and to his left. He reached the ball, but misplayed it, and it glanced off his glove and to the wall. Solarte scored. Jabari Blash drove in another run, and the Padres led, 2-0.
Sean Rodriguez leveled the score. Starting in place of Jordy Mercer at shortstop, Rodriguez drove home a run with a bases-loaded grounder in the second inning.
His two-out single in the fourth evened the score at 2.
