Suwinski, Pirates entertain sellout crowd, spoiling Taillon's return taken at PNC Park (Pirates)

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Jack Suwinski celebrates with Bryan Reynolds after hitting a two-run home run.

It's been nearly three years since the last time the Pirates sold out PNC Park. Sure, it took a Bill Mazeroski bobblehead night, an appearance from Maz himself and the Yankees coming to town to pack 37,733 fans on the North Shore for the first sellout since July 20, 2019.

Regardless of any causality or excuse for it, the Pirates gave the home crowd -- whatever percentage supported the home club -- a night that reminded us how electric this place can be when it is filled to capacity, as they defeated the Yankees, 5-2.

"That was pretty cool atmosphere tonight. Our fans came after it," Derek Shelton said after the game. "I give our fans a ton of credit, man, they were into it."

The Pirates gave plenty of reasons for the Pittsburgh faithful to be into the game. Just as this team stepped up against the Dodgers earlier this season, the Pirates turned in a complete performance. They hit, they played defense, they pitched -- it's almost like this team knew what they were doing, even though most of these younger players had never played in front of a sold out home crowd in the big leagues.

"That was an awesome environment," Jack Suwinski said. "Yeah, it definitely gives you some adrenaline; gets the blood flowing a little bit. You've gotta balance that a little bit."

Balance that, he did.

With a narrow 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, Suwinski stepped up to the plate following a leadoff double by Bryan Reynolds, which was only the second hit of the game for the Pirates to that point.

Suwinski then worked the count full against Jameson Taillon, who led Major League Baseball with 1.2 walks per nine innings heading into Tuesday's action. Suwinski choked up on the bat, went into his "two-strike approach" and did this to a 3-2 changeup off the outside corner of the plate:

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Watch how nonchalantly Suwinski describes the shift in his mentality and approach with two strikes:

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"3-2, I'm in a two-strike approach," Suwinski said. "3-2, 2-2, 1-2, I think it just goes to that two-strike approach. Trying to stay a little more direct to the ball. Less movement. Just trying to shrink the zone and put more balls in play."

Not bad for a guy who started the season at Class AA Altoona, huh?

Suwinski wasn't the only one to homer on a full count. The first run of the game came courtesy of this solo bomb mashed by Daniel Vogelbach, who extended his hitting streak to a career-high eight games:

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The Pirates now have 17 homers this year on full counts, which is the second-highest total in baseball behind only the Braves' 21. Since pitch data started being tracked in 1988, it is tied for the sixth most full-count homers by the Pirates in a single season in that time, and their most since hitting 18 in 2019.

On a night like this one, working counts was part of the game plan against Taillon. Doing that kind of damage against full-count pitches? That's a bonus.

"We made Jamo bring the ball to the middle of the plate," Shelton explained. "And as effective as he's been this year, I think part of the game plan was making sure we could grind through some at-bats and get it to the point where we were gonna force him to throw strikes. We knew that was a situation where we're gonna be able to take our best swings."

Having a veteran and a rookie find success in high-leverage counts is a wonderful trait for this lineup. Doing it in an environment like the one witnessed Tuesday night, that's something good teams expect to happen.

"That’s why you play baseball," Vogelbach said. "Those are the crowds you want to play in but, I said before the game, we shouldn’t need a crowd to get you ready to play. If you can’t hyped up and excited to play a major league baseball game, I think you’re in the wrong sport. ... Inside, you should be able to get yourself ready to play and bring it every single night."

• If there was another primary reason for the sellout crowd at PNC Park outside of the Yankees and Mazeroski, it was Taillon's return to Pittsburgh.

This is a guy who gave it all and worked through two surgeries and beat cancer along the way. He became one of the easiest Pirates to root for during his time in Pittsburgh, and the club recognized him as he took the mound for the visitors.

In addition to the tribute video, the Pirates played "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin -- his long-time walkup song.

“I’m not used to having my walk-out song played in a visiting stadium, so that was cool,” Taillon said. “Hopefully, I can get a copy of the video that was playing. I’d like to have that for the rest of my life.”

The Pirates tagged Taillon for all five Pittsburgh runs in the game. Vogelbach's and Suwinski's homers accounted for three runs, while Ben Gamel -- in his return from the injured list -- drove in a run with an RBI double later in the fourth and Oneil Cruz tacked on an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

It wasn't the return Taillon hoped for, but it was still special in its own way.

"I went through a lot here," Taillon said. "Made lifelong friends that I’m lucky I kept in touch with. I’ve been in these people’s weddings. I’ve watched families grow. It’s definitely good to be back. This city always treated me really well."

Alex Stumpf has more on Taillon's return to Pittsburgh alongside Gerrit Cole.

• I'd be remiss to not mention the atmosphere at PNC Park again. Yes, there were plenty of Yankees fans in attendance. Just from scanning the crowd from the press box, it wouldn't shock me if at least half the fans were dressed in Yankees blue and white.

However, Pirates fans were loud and proud any time the home team did something well. As the game went on, those cheers grew louder. Finally, it culminated in this moment when David Bednar closed out the game by striking out American League MVP candidate Aaron Judge, freezing him on this 78-mph curveball:

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I've only covered a handful of games at PNC Park, but that pop from the crowd is the new one to beat.

• Speaking of Bednar, he was sharp yet again for the second straight outing. After sitting out for five days then struggling in his first appearance afterward, Bednar has looked more like the pitcher that won National League Reliever of the Month in May.

"I think we’re trending in the right direction," Shelton said. "He looks more back to where he was earlier in the year.”

José Quintana turned in another solid performance, allowing just one run on six hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in five innings against a potent Yankees lineup.

The Yankees did make Quintana work hard to get outs (96 pitches), which is why he didn't make go beyond the fifth inning.

"I'm really happy with this W," Quintana. "I needed it. The team needed it. It's huge for us, especially when we face teams like that."

Wil Crowe and Duane Underwood Jr. handled the gap between Quintana and Bednar, with Crowe pitching the sixth and seventh. In what might have been the highest-leverage situation of the night for the Pirates, Crowe danced out of a two-on, one-out jam by getting Judge to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. Underwood Jr.'s only blemish came on an RBI single by Matt Carpenter.

• The aforementioned Gamel and Yoshi Tsutsugo both returned from the injured list and were in the starting lineup. Gamel came through with the big RBI double and added another hit in three total at-bats while Yoshi also went 2 for 3 as the first baseman. This may be the first time Yoshi has been healthy all season, which is reason to keep a close eye on his production with him back in the lineup.

"Yoshi looks better," Shelton said. "He looks more unencumbered. He looks like he’s swinging the bat without any resistance, which is important for us. Earlier in the year, I don’t think we saw those swings and now we’re starting to see the swings we saw last year in September.”

• Last and certainly not least, Mazeroski threw out the first pitch because why not bring back the legend who hit the walkoff homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series to beat those darn Yankees?

THE ESSENTIALS

Boxscore
Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

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THE INJURIES

15-day injured list: LHP Dillon Peters (back)

60-day injured list: SS Kevin Newman (groin), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb) OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery) RHP Max Kranick (elbow), Roberto Pérez (hamstring)

COVID injured list: RHP Yerry De Los Santos

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Jack Suwinski, LF
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
6. Oneil Cruz, SS
7. Ben Gamel, RF
8. Michael Perez, C
9. Josh VanMeter, 2B

And for Aaron Boone's Yankees:

1. DJ LeMahieu, 1B
2. Aaron Judge, CF
3. Gleyber Torres, 2B
4. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
5. Josh Donaldson, 3B
6. Matt Carpenter, DH
7. Aaron Hicks, LF
8. Jose Trevino, C
9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS

THE SCHEDULE

Same two teams face off again tomorrow night, 7:05 p.m. Matching righties Mitch Keller (2-5, 5.14) and Luis Severino (4-3, 3.35) will face off. Alex Stumpf will have the pregame, then I'll tag in for game coverage.

THE CONTENT

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