PIRATES

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Nick Yorke celebrates his walkoff double in the ninth inning Saturday at PNC Park.

Where does Nick Yorke's game-winning double in the ninth inning of today's 3-2 victory over the Orioles here at PNC Park rank among his top baseball moments? 

"That's gotta be No. 1," Yorke told me. "Up there with the debut, for sure. It was electric." 

Yorke entered as a pinch runner in the eighth inning and later scored the game-tying run. An inning later, he was tasked with having his first at-bat of the night against two-time All-Star Ryan Helsley. He laid off tough pitches, fouled off ones near the zone and eventually sent the eighth pitch of the at-bat over the head of Dylan Beavers for his first career walk-off hit. 

"So proud of him," Don Kelly said. "The way he grinded through spring training, he swung the bat way better than his numbers looked. He hit some balls into the wind in Florida that would have easily been home runs. Proud of him for sticking with it, sticking with the mentality of grinding through at-bats. That was a heck of an at-bat, with the game on the line. He hasn’t been getting consistent ABs. For him to be able to do that against a really good pitcher in Helsley, it was an awesome at-bat." 

Yorke's double, which scored Bryan Reynolds to extend the Pirates' winning streak to four games, put an end to a third one-run game in eight already played this season. Those are the type of games the Pirates have to grind through and win. They led Major League Baseball in playing in 60 one-run games last season, compiling a 25-35 record in those. So far, they're 3-0 in games decided by one run and are looking like a team capable of battling until the very end on a consistent basis. 

"That was kind of the killer for us a lot last year is losing the one-run games," Reynolds told me. "To have a comeback and pull it off against a guy like Helsley, we're a good team, and that's what good teams do."