PITTSBURGH _ After a frustrating afternoon offensively for the Pirates, they finally figured it out in the ninth.
With the Pirates trailing by a run entering the final inning, designated hitter Josh Bell drove a ball to center field for a lead-off single. The next batter, third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, did the same.
Center fielder Cole Tucker tied it up with yet another single to right field, scoring Bell and advancing Hayes to third.
Kevin Newman pinch-hit to try to bring home yet another walk-off win, but he grounded out weakly to the pitcher, resulting in a run-down with Hayes at home and the advancement of Tucker to third.
That left things up to shortstop Erik Gonzalez, who did just enough. The Reds employed a five-man infield against Newman and Gonzalez, and Gonzalez just floated a ball into right field off Reds reliever Raisel Iglesias. It was just deep enough to score the speedy Tucker, giving the Pirates their second walk-off win of the season, 3-2, along with a split of the four-game series with the Reds.
The Pirates' three runs were not exactly eye-popping productivity. Their only extra base hit of the afternoon came on a lead-off double from Gonzalez in the first.
Every other threat, along with the three runs they scored, came on singles.
At first it seemed like a case of some players hitting well while a majority of their lineup struggled. Gonzalez and second baseman Adam Frazier had two hits each, extending their hitting streaks to eight and 10 games respectively. Until the ninth, the rest of the team has two hits combined: left fielder Bryan Reynolds' RBI single in the third and Hayes' single in the fourth. That was it, until the Pirates (13-26) needed it most.
The only reason their three runs were enough, though was the Pirates' bullpen.. After the Reds' two-run third, Kuhl departed. From there, Geoff Hartlieb, Sam Howard, Chris Stratton, Nik Turley and Richard Rodriguez combined for six scoreless innings to close out the game for the Pirates.
While the Pirates' pen has been put in a tough spot this season, with several injuries depleting their available arms, they have actually been quite good, other than a few outliers. Overall, entering Sunday's game, the Pirates had the 12th-worst bullpen ERA in baseball. However, since Aug. 8, the day after reliever Miguel Del Pozo made his final outing for them before being designated for assignment, the Pirates actually have MLB's ninth-best bullpen ERA.
That has been led by the discoveries of players like the five who finished the game out Sunday. Rodriguez is, really, the only one of them who was expected to hold a high-leverage roll this season. The rest have been pleasant surprises.
For anyone still down on that unit as a whole, then, Sunday was a pleasant surprise as well. From the fourth inning on, the Reds had just one hit, three walks and seven strikeouts.
That kept the game within reach, and it took the Pirates until the ninth to finally capitalize on that opportunity.
