Jun. 20—Where the Cleveland Indians’ right-handed hitters looked to left field for a trio of solo home runs — with one ricocheting off the rotunda — the Pittsburgh Pirates’ lefties took aim at a different target at PNC Park.
Michael Perez and Bryan Reynolds hit three-run homers over the Clemente Wall in right field — with one taking a splash in the Allegheny River — in a six-run seventh inning to lift the Pirates to a 6-3 victory Saturday afternoon before 16,830 at PNC Park.
It was a quick reversal for the Pirates (25-44), who won their second consecutive game after snapping a 10-game losing streak with an 11-10 victory Friday night against Cleveland. Where they were aboard a sinking ship just two days ago, they now had a fan doing a cannonball into the river to retrieve Reynolds’ blast. Afterward, Reynolds was asked if he would be willing to do the same for a home run ball.
“I just saw the picture of the guy doing the cannonball in and getting it,” Reynolds said. “So, yeah, I’m jumping in for sure.”
The Indians (38-30) took a 2-0 lead after homers by Harold Ramirez and Rene Rivera and added another when Ramirez led off the ninth inning with a 428-foot bomb to left-center.
A former Pirates top-10 prospect included in the Francisco Liriano trade with Toronto in 2016, Ramirez got the scoring started when he drilled Wil Crowe’s 2-1 slider 392 feet to left for his fourth homer to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Rivera led off the third by sending a slider 405 feet off the rotunda for his first homer and a 2-0 lead. The ball, which had a 105.3 mph exit velocity, bounced off the railing and back onto the playing field.
Those were the only runs allowed by Crowe, who gave up four hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts before being replaced by Chris Stratton (2-0).
“He gave us a chance to win the game,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Crowe. “I think that’s an important thing for starters, regardless if you look at how many pitches they throw or how many innings they throw: He have us a chance to win the game. He hung two sliders that got hit out of the ballpark, but he continued to execute pitches.”
The Pirates left five runners on base, two each in the third and fourth innings against Indians starter Cal Quantrill, who allowed three hits and two walks while pitching five scoreless innings. It wasn’t until the Indians replaced Quantrill with reliever Bryan Shaw (1-2) that the Pirates got going.
Shaw walked Ben Gamel and Kevin Newman to start the seventh, then Perez hit a 1-2 cutter 360 feet into the right-field seats for his fifth homer and a 3-2 lead.
“He made a mistake,” Perez said, “and I was able to capture it.”
The Indians pulled Shaw after he walked pinch-hitter Phillip Evans, only for James Karinchak to walk Adam Frazier. Reynolds followed by crushing an 0-1 fastball 428 feet and into the Allegheny on a bounce, the second time he’s accomplished that feat and the 62nd time in PNC Park history.
“When the pitcher is struggling to find the zone, you really want to zone up what you’re looking for and keyhole a little bit,” Reynolds said. “Make sure that it’s in there, and you’re not chasing and helping him out. So that’s the biggest thing.”
Karinchak got the hook after walking Colin Moran, only for Nick Sandin to walk Gregory Polanco before striking out Gamel and getting Newman to ground out. The Pirates scored six runs on two hits, thanks to the two homers and six walks — the most walks in an inning for the Pirates in 45 years, since they drew as many in the second inning of a 14-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on April 13, 1976.
“I’ll take both of them,” Shelton said, with a laugh. “Can I get greedy? Six walks gives you so many opportunities to score. I like when they’re mixed in between homers, though. I will take that.”
Ramirez achieved his first career multi-homer game by going long to start the ninth, but Richard Rodriguez recovered to retire the next three batters and end the game. The key for the Pirates was they kept the Indians from getting free bases, limiting their scoring chances.
“I made two bad pitches, and they hit them out. So what? Solo home runs don’t hurt you,” Crowe said. “You keep them at one, you keep it there and you let the guys have a chance. That was all I was doing. You give up one, you leave it at that. You give up solo home runs, you leave it at that, and you give the guys an opportunity to fight back and score runs like we did and win a ballgame.”
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .
