Far too often last season, the Pirates watched comfortable leads slip away, with their bottom-ranked offense unable to provide enough support. However, the script has been different this season, including Saturday afternoon's 10-9 victory over the Twins at PNC Park, securing a series win.
"We’ve shown some good fight. We’ve talked about adversity. You’re always going to deal with it as you go through a season," Don Kelly said. "You deal with it when you go through games. To have a 7-1 lead, then 7-7, to get up and be able to add on right there, make it 10-7, was really big. We’ve shown really good fight throughout the course of the season and throughout the course of the game today."
That fight looks different this season because the Pirates are now ranked fourth in MLB with 292 runs scored, compared to the 583 total runs scored all last season.
Today, Spencer Horwitz started it off with a leadoff homer run in the first inning that landed out of the park and brought this immediate reaction by him on the finish to his swing:
"The way he’s been swinging the bat has been tremendous," Don Kelly said. "He started that rally last night left-on-left, getting a base hit the other way, I think he’s in a really good spot. He’s not trying to hit those home runs. His rhythm is really good right now. He’s catching the ball out front."
In the second inning, the Pirates appeared to have taken control as the offense erupted for six runs on six hits including two home runs. Jake Mangum crushed his first this season to right-center field with the ball traveling 410 feet.
"Very rarely are you going to see me just stand in the box and watch it," Mangum said. "I don’t hit enough homers to do that. I knew I got that one. I’m glad it went over."
Oneil Cruz capped it off with a more expected source for power, driving a three-run home run to the bullpen to finish the scoring in the second inning. It was the continued growth Kelly has mentioned out of Cruz, who didn't have a great at-bat in the first inning.
"First at-bat, first and third, ended up striking out. Then he came up second at-bat and hit a three-run home run," Kelly said. "We want to see a fight. We want to see the battle. We also know it’s gonna happen."
It wasn't all power that led the offense today. The team collected 15 total hits and stole five bases -- three alone in the seventh inning -- that displayed the aggressiveness the team has shown all season.
"We have a lot of guys who can run who are looking to be aggressive," Kelly said. "I thought we did an awesome job there being aggressive on the stolen bases. The one where Griff scored and Endy went first to third was a huge play."
While all of the newcomers like Mangum, Brandon Lowe and Konnor Griffin have helped deepen the lineup, it is still the longest-tenured batter, Bryan Reynolds, who is leading the team's resurgence at the plate with another solid performance with two hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning that turned out to be the game-winning RBI for the second consecutive game.
THE ASYLUM
Pirates' bats keep bopping, out-muscle Twins
Far too often last season, the Pirates watched comfortable leads slip away, with their bottom-ranked offense unable to provide enough support. However, the script has been different this season, including Saturday afternoon's 10-9 victory over the Twins at PNC Park, securing a series win.
"We’ve shown some good fight. We’ve talked about adversity. You’re always going to deal with it as you go through a season," Don Kelly said. "You deal with it when you go through games. To have a 7-1 lead, then 7-7, to get up and be able to add on right there, make it 10-7, was really big. We’ve shown really good fight throughout the course of the season and throughout the course of the game today."
That fight looks different this season because the Pirates are now ranked fourth in MLB with 292 runs scored, compared to the 583 total runs scored all last season.
Today, Spencer Horwitz started it off with a leadoff homer run in the first inning that landed out of the park and brought this immediate reaction by him on the finish to his swing:
"The way he’s been swinging the bat has been tremendous," Don Kelly said. "He started that rally last night left-on-left, getting a base hit the other way, I think he’s in a really good spot. He’s not trying to hit those home runs. His rhythm is really good right now. He’s catching the ball out front."
In the second inning, the Pirates appeared to have taken control as the offense erupted for six runs on six hits including two home runs. Jake Mangum crushed his first this season to right-center field with the ball traveling 410 feet.
"Very rarely are you going to see me just stand in the box and watch it," Mangum said. "I don’t hit enough homers to do that. I knew I got that one. I’m glad it went over."
Oneil Cruz capped it off with a more expected source for power, driving a three-run home run to the bullpen to finish the scoring in the second inning. It was the continued growth Kelly has mentioned out of Cruz, who didn't have a great at-bat in the first inning.
"First at-bat, first and third, ended up striking out. Then he came up second at-bat and hit a three-run home run," Kelly said. "We want to see a fight. We want to see the battle. We also know it’s gonna happen."
It wasn't all power that led the offense today. The team collected 15 total hits and stole five bases -- three alone in the seventh inning -- that displayed the aggressiveness the team has shown all season.
"We have a lot of guys who can run who are looking to be aggressive," Kelly said. "I thought we did an awesome job there being aggressive on the stolen bases. The one where Griff scored and Endy went first to third was a huge play."
While all of the newcomers like Mangum, Brandon Lowe and Konnor Griffin have helped deepen the lineup, it is still the longest-tenured batter, Bryan Reynolds, who is leading the team's resurgence at the plate with another solid performance with two hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning that turned out to be the game-winning RBI for the second consecutive game.
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