Pirates rally in the 9th to beat Miami, snap 10-game losing streak

Approaching the final week of June, a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Marlins offers one of the more striking contrasts across baseball with regard to fortunes and trajectories.

While one club has heated up sufficiently to rise near the top of its division and appears to be in overall solid shape, the other continued to sink to lower depths as a promising start became increasingly a thing of the past.

Fans of the Pirates should have no problem deducing which describes their team.

That said, the Pirates managed to stop the bleeding, at least temporarily, Friday in Miami, defeating the Marlins, 3-1, by way of a ninth-inning rally, which ended a 10-game losing streak.

After the Marlins snatched Thursday’s contest with a five-run eighth inning, it was the Pirates who returned the favor Friday, scoring three ninth-inning runs off Miami closer A.J. Puk.

With his team trailing, 1-0 in the top of the ninth, Josh Palacios pinch hit for Austin Hedges and got aboard with a soft single to left field, overcoming an 0-2 count.

“I was in battle mode, looking at trying to take the ball the other way,” Palacios said on the 93.7 FM postgame show.

With one out, Andrew McCutchen ran out a dribbler up the third-base line for a single, putting runners on first and second.

Then, with Connor Joe at the plate, Palacios and McCutchen pulled off a double steal.

Joe then hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Joey Wendle, which allowed Palacios, who had broken for home on contact, to make it home, tying the score.

To the plate came Carlos Santana, who proceeded to rip a single to center field, scoring McCutchen for what proved to be the winning run, handing the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

Luis Ortiz delivered his best start of the season, pitching eight innings of one-run baseball, allowing seven hits with two walks while striking out five. Ortiz (2-3, 3.74 ERA) earned the win.

“He was great,” said Carlos Santana about Ortiz on the Apple TV+ postgame show. “He has good stuff. He has very good command with the fastball, slider and some changeups to lefties.

“So, him tonight, he’s being aggressive, he’s attacking early … and that’s why he was great tonight.”

The Pirates’ ninth-inning offensive output of five hits far exceeded the two they managed over the first eight innings.

Before it was over, Henry Davis also had singled, followed by pinch-hitter Tucupita Marcano, whose hit scored Santana for an insurance run.

Taking the mound in the bottom of the ninth was David Bednar, who closed the door on the Marlins to earn his 15th save of the year.

Marlins starter Jesus Luzardo kept the Pirates (35-40) guessing throughout his start, allowing two baserunners through seven innings.

Luzardo stayed on to begin the eighth but was yanked by Miami manager Skip Schumaker after allowing a leadoff walk to Davis.

Davis stole second base and advanced to third on a groundout by Nick Gonzales, making his MLB debut Friday.

But Marlins reliever Tanner Scott struck out Ji Hwan Bae to end the inning, quelling the Pirates’ most promising opportunity to that point.

The Marlins got to work offensively quickly, racking up three singles in the bottom of the first inning off Ortiz and scoring the game’s first run when a hit by Jesus Sanchez plated Luis Arraez.

Arraez finished the game with three hits, boosting his MLB-best batting average to .402.

Ortiz was able to settle down after the first, allowing four hits over the next seven innings.

Gonzales was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts in his big-league debut.

Davis, playing in career MLB game No. 5, produced his first multi-hit night, going 2 for 3 with a walk.

For the first time since June 11, the Pirates were victorious.

While more work remains ahead to reverse a still-fresh rough patch, the Pirates can breathe a sigh of relief with a pair of games left in their series against Miami.

“To win a game like we won it today, coming back from behind, battling, guys grinding out at-bats, I think it’s a huge confidence boost for the boys,” Palacios said.