The Pirates have developed a propensity for late-game surges as evidenced by their back-to-back walk-off wins in their series against the Orioles over the weekend.
It won't be written, though, that the Pirates are going to have to abide by that formula as the sole means by which this offense will produce. As evidenced by the Pirates' 7-4 win over the Tigers Monday at PNC Park in the first of this two-game series, the early and mid-game successes and sustaining leads off of those are becoming just as important of a piece for this team's winning formula.
"We did a good job," Derek Shelton said. "We did a good job situationally. Rowdy (Tellez) getting (Andrew McCutchen) over (in the fifth inning) and we just continued to go. So it was nice to see that we took advantage of some situational hitting today."
Even after the Tigers jumped out for a 1-0 lead and tagged Mitch Keller for a 20-pitch first inning, the Pirates rallied behind their ace with a three-run second and a two-run third, which went hand-in-hand with shutdown second and third innings from Keller.
The Pirates earned their first 9-2 start since 1992 with contributions from everyone. Seven Pirates reached base two or more times, with the exceptions of Oneil Cruz and Ke'Bryan Hayes each reaching base just once. Tellez went 1-for-3, reached on a fielder's choice, was hit by a pitch, and scored two runs. Jack Suwinski had a pair of hits and drew a walk and scored twice. Connor Joe added a pair of hits and a walk and drove in two runs.
"Obviously they scored the first run in the first inning and to be able to answer back and put up and extra two, really nice," Joe said. "It's always nice to play with a lead but we're comfortable coming from behind and playing tight games, so we're winning in a lot of different ways which has been nice."
The bottom third of the Pirates' lineup -- Joe, Jared Triolo, and Joey Bart -- combined to go 5-for-10 with six RBIs Monday.
"It's not about where you hit in the lineup, but where the opportunities present themselves," Joe said. "Luckily guys in the heart of the order (were) getting on base and creating traffic for us at the bottom. When there's a guy on third base, less than two outs, wherever you're hitting in the lineup your job is to get them in any way that you can. We were able to produce some runs down there which was nice."
Less than one week after being acquired by the Pirates, Bart continued to provide pop with his second-consecutive multi-RBI game. Per Elias Sports Bureau, he is the fourth to record multiple RBIs in each of his first two games as a Pirate since 1920, and he is the first to do it since Lastings Milledge in 2009. Bart went 1-for-3 with a walk drawn and a two-RBI single in the second inning Monday.
"I mean he's just staying in the middle of the field," Shelton said of Bart. "He has power, which is obvious. If he stays with his approach, stays right-center field I think that's the thing. Even the walk, when (Tigers reliever Tyler) Bolton came in and was throwing cutters on him, that was important. He's really staying with the pitches he can hit and drive."
The night was also filled with a milestone, as Reynolds rocketed his 100th career home run -- fittingly measured at 412 feet -- to left field to lead off the sixth inning and give the Pirates a 7-2 lead.
"Yeah, feels good. Happy to get it out of the way," Reynolds said of the home run.
They would build off of that in the midst of a quality start from Keller. He allowed two runs on five hits while walking three and striking out nine in his six innings. He threw 98 pitches and 60 strikes and settled down mightily after that rocky first inning. Keller struck out the side in the second, walked one batter in the third, and allowed a double in the fifth before finishing his evening with an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth.
"Felt really good. Just had some (velocity) back," Keller said. "Don't want to walk too many guys but I was happy, overall, with how it went. ... Even in the first inning, had two walks which was kind of uncharacteristic, but I felt really good about how it was coming back out. It was just kind of dialing it back into the zone and once I went out there for the second I kind of knew that I was locked in with my stuff."
With Keller's six-inning outing, the Pirates have gone through one cycle of their rotation where each starter has pitched six or more innings. Over the last five games, Pirates starters have combined to allow eight runs and 23 hits while walking six and striking out 27 across 30.2 innings.
"I think it's important," Shelton said. "We are going to need all facets of our club and the fact that our starting pitching has jumped out and done a really consistent job I think is important because there's been times during the year where we're going to need, maybe it's a four-inning start or a five-inning start and our bullpen picks it up. But to see them jump out and, really, the most important thing is the execution of the fastball. I think we've done a really good job. Bailey (Falter) and Marco (Gonzales) did it over the last two days and Jared (Jones) the game before that and Mitch did it again today. So execution of fastball is extremely important and we've done a good job of it over the last span of 11 days."
The four-run cushion built through when Keller exited the game allowed for some wiggle room for the Pirates' bullpen.
Josh Fleming pitched a 1-2-3 seventh before the Tigers created trouble in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman came in with the bases loaded and one out to strike out Javier Baez and the debuting Wenceel Perez to shut down the threat and maintain a 7-3 lead into the ninth.
"That's definitely (a luxury)," Shelton said. "I thought Flem threw the ball well. We didn't secure the first ball and I mean, ground ball, Rowdy made a nice play on and I think he said he sat on his hand and he couldn't get up and then two soft ground balls. Flem did a good job and having the ability to go to Chapman there to kind of shut it down and we were able to stay away from using David (Bednar), which was important."
