Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz hit a mammoth homer in batting practice that cleared the seats in right field and put a dent in a showroom truck on the concourse.
Arizona’s Joc Pederson saved his monster blast for the game.
Pederson’s 15th homer of the season ignited a decisive three-run inning in the series opener. He’ll strive to help the Arizona Diamondbacks remain hot when they face the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night at Phoenix.
The Diamondbacks trailed 3-1 when Pederson led off the sixth inning against Luis Ortiz and drilled a 453-foot homer to right center. Gabriel Moreno delivered a tying single later in the inning, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. scored the go-ahead run on Carmen Mlodzinski’s wild pitch.
“The pitcher (Ortiz) was pretty dominant and shut us down,” said Pederson, who homered for the second straight game. “He didn’t give up much hard contact or baserunners.
“That’s what makes our team special. We don’t give up. We stay in the fight, and we were able to scratch and claw and wear them down over nine innings. It’s not how you start the game, it’s how you finish.”
Arizona has won nine of its last 12 games entering the middle contest of the three-game series. The Diamondbacks are a season-best four games above .500.
Arizona also was a late bloomer last season when it squeezed its way into the National League’s final wild-card spot and eventually advanced to the World Series before losing to the Texas Rangers.
The Diamondbacks didn’t do anything overly impressive in the series opener, but they did a lot of things well enough.
“Just a hard-fought win against a good baseball team,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “Those are the types of things we’ve been doing a lot lately. We hang in there, duke it out, find a little crack and then string together some good at-bats.”
The Pirates were on the opposite side of the coin and were just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The lone clutch hit was a two-run single in the first inning by Joshua Palacios.
Most discouraging to Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton was the failure to come through in the later innings.
“We had strong at-bats, but we didn’t finish,” Shelton said. “We had first and second in the seventh, then second and third in the eighth and did not have productive at-bats.”
The Pirates didn’t have the services of All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds (bereavement list) for the opener and then lost first baseman Rowdy Tellez (back spasms) in the third inning. Tellez is day-to-day.
Red-hot Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (4-6, 3.74 ERA) will be on the mound Saturday night.
Pfaadt has thrown 13 shutout innings over his last two starts. He gave up three hits over six innings while beating the Atlanta Braves on July 11 and followed up by allowing only one hit in seven innings in a no-decision against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
Over his last four starts, Pfaadt has allowed two runs and 16 hits in 23 1/3 innings, striking out 25 and walking just three.
Pfaadt, 25, received a no-decision in his lone career outing against Pittsburgh when he gave up three runs and six hits over 5 1/3 innings on May 20, 2023. Ke’Bryan Hayes had a three-run triple for the Pirates’ runs.
Left-hander Marco Gonzales (1-1, 2.70) will start for the Pirates on Saturday.
Gonzales, 32, will be making his third start since being sidelined nearly three months due to a forearm strain. He split the first two decisions, allowing three total runs in 9 2/3 innings.
Gonzales is 2-0 with a 5.73 ERA on two previous starts against the Diamondbacks. Randal Grichuk is 3-for-7 against Gonzales.
–Field Level Media
