Going Deep: Pirates persevere to split wild doubleheader
GETTY
Paul Skenes throws a pitch in the first inning of Thursday's game at Comerica Park in Detroit.
The doubleheader split the Pirates settled for today didn't come without its share of controversial moments and obstacles to overcome.
There were multiple rain delays, altercations with fans, questionable calls made by the umpiring crew, a lopsided 9-2 loss in Game 1 and a blown lead in Game 2. Through it all, though, the Pirates found a way to persevere.
Yes, those Pirates. The ones who were on the verge of being swept for the sixth time this season. The ones who mustered just two wins during their seven-game road trip. The ones who still sit at the bottom of the National League Central standings with an ugly 30-46 record.
On this night, they fought until the very end, following an hour-long rain delay by scoring four 10th-inning runs and overcoming the various distractions to secure an 8-4 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park.
"Showed up in the 10th inning there," PaulSkenes said. "To be able to lock back in and fight through it all was really good."
Skenes set the tone with a performance in which he had to battle adversity in his own right. He wasn't perfect. He found himself in his share of deep counts, battled command issues in walking a career-high five batters and saw his pitch count swell to 105 through six innings. Still, he battled through to register his 12th quality start and ninth outing in a row with two or fewer earned runs allowed. He surrendered just three hits, struck out nine -- his highest output since May 18 in Philadelphia -- and generated 21 whiffs on 50 swings.
The Pirates squandered a 4-2 lead Skenes helped maintain over his six innings and the offense, one that again scored runs early before failing to capitalize on the momentum in the latter innings, found new life in extras. Ke'BryanHayes provided the signature spark in a pinch-hit situation that carried some controversy with it, as TommyPham scored on this single to right field:
The Tigers challenged the safe call and the call on the field was confirmed by those in the Replay Operations Center. They later released a statement regarding the review: “After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official could not definitively determine that the fielder tagged the runner prior to the runner touching home plate. The call stands and the runner is safe.”
The final verdict wasn't met with much approval from the Detroit faithful. A.J. Hinch was eventually ejected for arguing the replay review decision, which was not made by the umpires on the field, and fans later turned their displeasure in the direction of Pham and the Pirates. They constantly booed after every at-bat -- including the ones that resulted in run-scoring hits by JoeyBart and Isiah Kiner-Falefa -- and evidently let Pham hear it even more when he reached the on-deck circle later in the same inning.
It got to the point where Pham confronted three fans behind home plate, prompting one specific fan's removal from the game.
"I guess fans were saying something to him and he didn't take kindly to it," DonKelly said. "Security did a great job at deescalating that pretty quick."
According to an MLB spokesperson, "The umpires worked with security and supported the decision to eject a fan who made inappropriate comments in order to be protective of a player on the field."
This particular fan confrontation, in addition to the one DennisSantana was involved in near the Pirates' bullpen in the seventh inning, could have easily served as a distraction. The fact that the tarp was brought out and a rain delay began with Santana operating in the middle of an at-bat in the ninth inning could have turned things sideways, too.
It didn't, though. The hits continued to stack in the 10th and DavidBednar managed to close things out in the latter two innings to preserve a win against the best team in baseball.
"Everything that unraveled that inning, after that, just the fight, it was great, and we've seen that," Kelly said. "We've seen that through the team, throughout the last few weeks, they continued to fight, continued to finish games. Sometimes we haven't come out on top of those, but tonight we continued to battle. We were able to fight and come out on top."
Prior to this particular effort, the Pirates had been beaten and battered in different ways over their previous four games. They were outmatched in the first two games against the Tigers and, prior to this series, just couldn't do enough to win a couple of one-run games against a Cubs team that sits atop the division standings.
It was a disheartening stretch that could have continued had they not been able to overcome all of the road blocks standing in their way.
"It's important to win every game and to try our best to win every game," NickGonzales told me. "I don't know how many games back we are, and I don't think it matters. We are committed to try to win every single game, no matter what the outcome is, no matter what the previous pitch was or what happened the previous inning or the previous game. I whole heartedly believe that, I know all these guys do, too. Whatever obstacles are thrown in front of us with this rain or whatever it may be, we've just got to keep battling."
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José Negron
2:10 am - 06.20.2025DetroitGoing Deep: Pirates persevere to split wild doubleheader
GETTY
Paul Skenes throws a pitch in the first inning of Thursday's game at Comerica Park in Detroit.
The doubleheader split the Pirates settled for today didn't come without its share of controversial moments and obstacles to overcome.
There were multiple rain delays, altercations with fans, questionable calls made by the umpiring crew, a lopsided 9-2 loss in Game 1 and a blown lead in Game 2. Through it all, though, the Pirates found a way to persevere.
Yes, those Pirates. The ones who were on the verge of being swept for the sixth time this season. The ones who mustered just two wins during their seven-game road trip. The ones who still sit at the bottom of the National League Central standings with an ugly 30-46 record.
On this night, they fought until the very end, following an hour-long rain delay by scoring four 10th-inning runs and overcoming the various distractions to secure an 8-4 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park.
"Showed up in the 10th inning there," Paul Skenes said. "To be able to lock back in and fight through it all was really good."
Skenes set the tone with a performance in which he had to battle adversity in his own right. He wasn't perfect. He found himself in his share of deep counts, battled command issues in walking a career-high five batters and saw his pitch count swell to 105 through six innings. Still, he battled through to register his 12th quality start and ninth outing in a row with two or fewer earned runs allowed. He surrendered just three hits, struck out nine -- his highest output since May 18 in Philadelphia -- and generated 21 whiffs on 50 swings.
The Pirates squandered a 4-2 lead Skenes helped maintain over his six innings and the offense, one that again scored runs early before failing to capitalize on the momentum in the latter innings, found new life in extras. Ke'Bryan Hayes provided the signature spark in a pinch-hit situation that carried some controversy with it, as Tommy Pham scored on this single to right field:
The Tigers challenged the safe call and the call on the field was confirmed by those in the Replay Operations Center. They later released a statement regarding the review: “After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official could not definitively determine that the fielder tagged the runner prior to the runner touching home plate. The call stands and the runner is safe.”
The final verdict wasn't met with much approval from the Detroit faithful. A.J. Hinch was eventually ejected for arguing the replay review decision, which was not made by the umpires on the field, and fans later turned their displeasure in the direction of Pham and the Pirates. They constantly booed after every at-bat -- including the ones that resulted in run-scoring hits by Joey Bart and Isiah Kiner-Falefa -- and evidently let Pham hear it even more when he reached the on-deck circle later in the same inning.
It got to the point where Pham confronted three fans behind home plate, prompting one specific fan's removal from the game.
"I guess fans were saying something to him and he didn't take kindly to it," Don Kelly said. "Security did a great job at deescalating that pretty quick."
According to an MLB spokesperson, "The umpires worked with security and supported the decision to eject a fan who made inappropriate comments in order to be protective of a player on the field."
This particular fan confrontation, in addition to the one Dennis Santana was involved in near the Pirates' bullpen in the seventh inning, could have easily served as a distraction. The fact that the tarp was brought out and a rain delay began with Santana operating in the middle of an at-bat in the ninth inning could have turned things sideways, too.
It didn't, though. The hits continued to stack in the 10th and David Bednar managed to close things out in the latter two innings to preserve a win against the best team in baseball.
"Everything that unraveled that inning, after that, just the fight, it was great, and we've seen that," Kelly said. "We've seen that through the team, throughout the last few weeks, they continued to fight, continued to finish games. Sometimes we haven't come out on top of those, but tonight we continued to battle. We were able to fight and come out on top."
Prior to this particular effort, the Pirates had been beaten and battered in different ways over their previous four games. They were outmatched in the first two games against the Tigers and, prior to this series, just couldn't do enough to win a couple of one-run games against a Cubs team that sits atop the division standings.
It was a disheartening stretch that could have continued had they not been able to overcome all of the road blocks standing in their way.
"It's important to win every game and to try our best to win every game," Nick Gonzales told me. "I don't know how many games back we are, and I don't think it matters. We are committed to try to win every single game, no matter what the outcome is, no matter what the previous pitch was or what happened the previous inning or the previous game. I whole heartedly believe that, I know all these guys do, too. Whatever obstacles are thrown in front of us with this rain or whatever it may be, we've just got to keep battling."
Want to participate in our comments?
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Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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