After ending a 10-game losing streak, the Pittsburgh Pirates took the first two games of their series against the Seattle Mariners and were seeking their third sweep of the season and first at home.
But the Pirates’ inability to finish off opponents persisted.
Cal Raleigh, Josh Rojas and Dominic Canzone hit two-strike home runs as the Mariners pounded the Pirates, 10-3, on Sunday afternoon before 24,903 at PNC Park.
The loss ended the momentum the Pirates (58-65) built over the weekend as they hit the road for a three-game series at the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers.
“It was, obviously, not how you wanted to end it, but you got to take what we can out of it, and that’s what we’re going to do moving forward,” said Pirates catcher Joey Bart, who hit his career-high 12th home run of the season. “You take out those 10 days, and everybody’s feeling high and mighty and coming off a lot of good series wins and baseball showed up. We struggled a little bit, but you got to put that in the past and work forward. This series here was a good one to take two out of three and try to get some momentum rolling.”
After dropping the first two games of the weekend series, the Mariners (64-61) responded with 13 hits to match their total of the previous two games. They scored seven runs on nine hits, including two homers, in four innings against Pirates starter Jake Woodford.
“I was falling behind some today, which was putting me in bad counts,” said Woodford, who dropped to 0-5 overall, 0-3 with the Pirates. “It’s tough to pitch when you get behind. I thought we made some good adjustments, but it was one of those days where it wasn’t going my way.”
Mariners starter George Kirby (9-9) allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings. Kirby allowed only two hits through five scoreless innings before giving up the homer to Bart.
Raleigh followed a Julio Rodriguez single by drilling Woodford’s 2-2 sweeper 367 feet to right field for his 27th home run and a 2-0 Seattle lead in the first inning. The Mariners got singles from Luke Raley and Justin Turner, and both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch before Woodford got Canzone to hit a comebacker to end the frame.
Amid a downpour, the Mariners added two more runs in the second inning. Rojas singled, Leo Rivas walked and Victor Robles drove in both with a line-drive double to left to make it 4-0. Robles advanced to third on a throwing error by Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz, his 24th of the season.
Another error played a big part in a three-run fourth inning. After Rojas hit a 2-2 sinker for a leadoff homer, Rivas and Robles followed with successive singles. Then Rodriguez hit a grounder to third for a would-be double play, but Jared Triolo overthrew Isiah Kiner-Falefa at second, allowing Rivas to score and Robles to reach third. Luke Fraley’s sacrifice fly to center drove in Robles for a 7-0 lead.
Ryder Ryan replaced Woodford in the fifth, only to surrender another leadoff homer on a 2-2 slider to Canzone, who hit a 416-foot shot to center to give the Mariners an eight-run edge.
The Pirates finally scored in the sixth, when Cruz singled through a shift and Bart smacked an 0-1 fastball down the middle for a 430-foot shot to right-center to cut it to 8-2.
But the Mariners added two more runs off Ryan in the seventh, as Raley singled and scored when Canzone grounded into a bases-loaded double play, and pinch runner Dylan Moore scored on a single by Rivas. Ben Heller walked Robles to load the bases again but got Rodriguez to fly out to center to end the frame.
Alika Williams pinch-hit for Kiner-Falefa and led off the eighth with a double to the right-field corner, then advanced to third on a fielder’s choice by Cruz and scored on a passed ball by Raleigh to cut it to 10-3.
“We came in and won two of three against the best starting pitching in baseball,” Shelton said. “Today, obviously, wasn’t our day. But to come back from the road trip and win two of three, that was important to us. I was pleased with how we responded coming off the trip.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
