Back-to-back-to-back blasts in the 10th beat Braves, 12-5

ATLANTA — The struggles of Andrew McCutchen are well-documented, but he's not the only Pirates player fighting through mental anguish.

Entering Wednesday, David Freese was 3 for 26 since returning from the disabled list on May 12, Gift Ngoepe sat in a 2-for-24 slump and José Osuna was receiving few chances to produce.

All three, along with McCutchen, had a hand in sparking the offense to tie the score in the ninth with two runs and adding seven more in the 10th inning to earn a 12-5 win over the Braves at SunTrust Park Wednesday night.

It was the second consecutive night the Pirates — who improved their record to 21-26 and are now 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Brewers — executed a ninth-inning comeback. This time, though, they came out with the win, and Clint Hurdle was beaming after it unfolded.



"It’s why people come to the ballpark," he said. "You never know what’s going to happen when you come out here."

The victory came less than 24 hours after the Braves earned a walk-off 6-5 win that followed a rain delay more than three hours long. That emotionally-draining loss did not linger with the Pirates, though. McCutchen was offered, and accepted, a day off amid a 0-for-15 slump that dipped his average to .200.

The Pirates appeared to hold on to the magic they generated after relinquishing the one-run lead they held during that long rain delay a night earlier, when Jordy Mercer's two-run single tied the score 5-5.

This comeback was far more dramatic, and much more satisfying to the Pirates, though. With Pittsburgh trailing 5-3 after the Braves tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning, Ngoepe led off the ninth and reached on an infield single, beating out the throw from Atlanta shortstop Dansby Swanson.

Adam Frazier — who went 2 for 2 and reached base in all six of his plate appearances — followed with a single to left field. Locked in a slump, Freese came to the plate and drew an eight-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs.

Three pitches later, Osuna hit this ground ball through the hole and into left to score Ngoepe and Harrison to tie the score:



The hit came after Osuna's 13-pitch at-bat when he entered as a pinch-hitter for John Jaso in the eighth.

"It’s fun to watch all of them that went up there," a proud Hurdle said after.

Felipe Rivero struck out two batters in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extra innings when McCutchen entered to pinch-hit to leadoff the 10th. He spoke earlier in the day of needing to stop rotating his torso so much when swinging at pitches, and to simplify his approach.

He did just that when he lined this cutter to center field for the leadoff single:



McCutchen was not available following the game, but at least one of his teammates was encouraged to see even the smallest sign of him escaping this slump.

"Positions players, we’ve all been there," Harrison told DKPittsburghSports.com. "A guy of his stature, what he brings to the table, it’s nice to see him come into the 10th inning and his at-bat was a big one. It got the inning started."

Chris Stewart then executed a sacrifice bunt to advance McCutchen. Three pitches later, Ngoepe lined a ball down the right-field line for an RBI double and the go-ahead run. That began an extra-inning onslaught unlike any the Pirates have produced in quite some time.

Harrison delivered a two-run single to left, and with two outs Freese, Osuna and Mercer hit consecutive home runs against the Braves' Josh Collmenter, giving the Pirates a 12-5 lead.

It was the most runs the Pirates had scored in extra innings since they had eight in the 10th against the Reds on May 25, 2007, and it was the first time they hit back-to-back-to-back home runs since Sept. 12, 2013 against the Cubs.

"It was chaos out there," Ngoepe said. "It was fun to be apart of that 10th inning."

More important, it was an encouraging sign for an offense that stranded 13 runners on base the night before and ranks among the worst in every major statistical category in Major League Baseball.

The Pirates had just five hits through eight innings, but strung together 10 in the final two. Harrison said that performance, as well as the comeback less than 24 hours earlier, can be a building block for the offense: