PIRATES

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Ryan O'Hearn circles the bases after his two-run home run in the fourth inning Wednesday night in Sacramento, Calif.

Entering the week, Ryan O'Hearn wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire in his 13 games since returning from a two-week stint on the injured list. His .229 average, a .662 OPS and the 18 strikeouts in 48 at-bats weren't helping a Pirates team that recently endured a stretch of three straight series losses. 

The version of O'Hearn the Pirates have seen this week, including in tonight's 12-4 win over the Athletics here at Sutter Health Park, is the one they've become accustomed to over a much larger sample size. O'Hearn is now hitting .290 with an .826 OPS after enjoying a career night in which he collected three of the Pirates' 16 hits, including a two-run home run -- his 11th of the season -- in the fourth inning of his 800th career major-league game. He finished with a career-high six RBIs and concluded the series with a 7-for-14 showing that included two three-hit games.

“It felt really good," O'Hearn said after the team secured its first series win since June 2-4 in Houston. "Kind of a tough stretch, but that’s just the way it goes. There are ebbs and flows to the season and getting back on the right side of things in this series was huge for us."

O'Hearn admittedly hasn't hit the ball well to left field in recent weeks. That's a strength of his, and it showed on this particular night as he went the opposite way for a two-run double off Aaron Civale in the first inning, a two-run homer off José Suarez in the fourth and a two-run single off Luis Medina in the seventh. 

“Cleaning some things up mechanically and just getting to the point where you can go and compete and feel free up there," O'Hearn said. "I think the last two days have been good. A little luck involved, so that helps, too, but I feel good. I think I’m trending in a good direction and I think we are as a team, as well.” 

With an offense that has become less deep without Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz, the Pirates need guys like O'Hearn, Bryan Reynolds, Brandon Lowe and Spencer Horwitz to take their games to another level. Reynolds has been incredibly productive, as he was once again in extending his on-base streak to 24 games with a two-hit effort tonight, and Lowe has had some big at-bats over the last two nights. Horwitz did his part, too, in collecting two doubles, drawing two walks and scoring three runs out of the leadoff spot in the series finale. 

"I think that's a key for us, is quality at-bats and production up and down the line," said O'Hearn, one of six players with multi-hit performances tonight. "Any stretch that we've had that's been really good this season, I think the common denominator has been the offense has been kind of relentless, and up and down the lineup, guys are getting on base and driving in runs no matter where we're at in the lineup. That's huge."