PITTSBURGH — The walk-off RBI in Wednesday’s win for the Pirates will be given to first baseman Colin Moran, but utility man Wilmer Difo was the star.
In the bottom of the ninth inning on Roberto Clemente Day, with the game tied at four, Difo hit a one-out fly ball down the left-field line. Reds left fielder Max Schrock overran it, the ball landed fair and bounced into the stands to put Difo on second. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds was walked intentionally, bringing up Moran.
Moran grounded a ball to first. Joey Votto fielded it and flipped it to right-hander Mychal Givens, covering first base. Moran was out, but Difo never stopped running from second. Givens took a pause, and it was just enough time for Difo to beat the throw home, slide in head first and secure the Pirates’ win, 5-4.
It would have been hard to imagine a walk-off win would be possible early on in the game. It looked like Mitch Keller was going to melt down for a time.
The Pirates right-hander has seen that before in this same setting. Back on May 10, he faced the Reds at PNC Park. On that day, he gave up seven earned runs in 3 1/3 innings.
On Wednesday, he gave up two singles and a walk, allowing two earned runs in the first inning. It took him 32 pitches to battle through the frame, and it looked like another rough Keller start. And then he got himself together.
Keller dealt an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 second inning against the bottom of the Reds’ order, then used that to turn momentum. In the end, he pitched five innings, giving up just the two runs on four hits, two walks, one hit batter and three strikeouts.
There are caveats here. Keller allowed some especially hard contact that went for outs. Reds slugger Nick Castellanos drove one to the wall in dead center for an out in the first. Jonathan India smoked a deep fly ball to left in the third inning that left fielder Ben Gamel caught right at the wall. It may have carried out had he not been there, though it wasn’t an especially difficult grab in the end, either.
Nonetheless, for as rough as the start of the outing was, this was an encouraging outing for Keller, and another data point in what has been a pretty strong September for him. Through three starts now, Keller has pitched 16 innings this month, with a 3.38 ERA. He does have a 1.438 WHIP, which is a fairly hefty number, but with the season he’s had, the Pirates will take all the good signs they can get.
Even still, the Pirates’ patchwork bullpen couldn’t hold the lead to secure Keller’s fifth win of the season. Right-hander Chad Kuhl, who has been slightly embattled since becoming a reliever, struggled in the seventh inning. He hit the first batter he faced, then allowed a single to move the first runner to third. A sacrifice fly provided the run before Kuhl escaped without further harm.
Left-hander Sam Howard, who has struggled for much of the season after a solid start to the year gave up a game-tying solo homer to Kyle Farmer in the eighth.
But that entire roller coaster was erased by Difo, a hustle play befitting the occasion on Roberto Clemente Day at PNC Park.
