Pirates mount several rallies before losing in 11th to Tigers

The Pittsburgh Pirates were down a manager, seven pitchers and five runs against the Detroit Tigers, and it looked like a loss to the Detroit Tigers was inevitable.

That was before they rallied to tie it on Adam Frazier’s two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth and send the game into extra innings before the Tigers scored four runs in the 11th for a 17-13 victory Friday night at PNC Park.

Yes, you read that right.

It was the Pirates’ third 11-inning loss this season and second this week, and a finish fitting for a game that featured a combined 32 hits and 30 runs, lasted 4 hours and 34 minutes and was nothing short of eventful:

• Chad Kuhl had seven strikeouts in his first major league start in two years, only to see piggyback partner Steven Brault let a three-run lead slip away as the injury-riddled bullpen blew multiple leads.

• Erik Gonzalez set a club record with six RBIs while batting ninth, tying a club record for a shortstop since the statistic became official in 1920, and hit a 463-foot homer to left that is the third-longest in the majors this season. He went 4 for 5 and fell a triple short of the cycle.

• Phillip Evans hit his first MLB home run, a three-run shot into the visiting bullpen in left-center.

• Pirates skipper Derek Shelton earned his first ejection as a major league manager after arguing a ball that hit catcher Jacob Stallings in the chest protector in the heart of the strike zone.

• The Tigers batted around the order twice — in a four-run fifth and six-run seventh inning but let the lead slip away.

All of it made a distant memory of an impressive start by Kuhl, his first since June 25, 2018, when he suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. Kuhl struck out seven while allowing only one hit in four innings, throwing 37 strikes on 58 pitches.

“Kuhl was probably about as good as he could be,” Shelton said. “He was outstanding. I mean, his first start since June of 2018, to come out and execute the way he did and for his velocity to be where it was at, it was tremendous.”

Brault, however, allowed four runs on three hits and three walks without recording an out. That could put the piggyback in jeopardy, though Shelton said his decision will be based on pitching availability. Kuhl hopes he proved that he can go deeper into games now that he’s had a chance to pitch four full innings.

“I mean, it’s just the way baseball works sometimes,” Kuhl said. “It’s a crazy game. We had opportunities to win the ball game, fought like heck to get into the ballgame a few times. The relievers, they really did a great job from just keeping it manageable for our guys. Obviously, gave up a couple runs, but with the guy on second starting already, it’s just a different thing that those guys are used to. They’ll get better at that and we’ll go from there.”

In their previous tandem start on Sunday at the Chicago Cubs, Brault pitched three perfect innings before giving way to Kuhl, who allowed one run in 1¹/₃ innings before leaving with an abrasion to the cuticle on his right index finger. The Pirates ended up losing, 2-1, in 11 innings.

This one got off to another good start as Kuhl struck out the side on 12 pitches in the first inning by getting Niko Goodrum, Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Cabrera swinging. But C.J. Cron started the second by hitting a 1-1 pitch for a 351-foot homer to right field for a 1-0 lead.

The Pirates answered with two runs to take the lead in the second. Gonzalez hit a bases-loaded single to score Bryan Reynolds and Evans for a 2-1 edge. Stallings doubled to the North Side Notch to start the fourth, and Gonzalez followed by driving a slider into the left-field seats for a 4-1 lead.

Brault replaced Kuhl in the fifth, but it was nothing short of disastrous. Brault failed to record an out, blowing the three-run lead before leaving with the bases loaded. Christin Stewart doubled to center and reached third on Jeimer Candelario’s single to right. Brault walked Victor Reyes to load the bases, but Austin Romine singled to right to score Stewart and cut it to 4-2. Brault walked JaCoby Jones with the bases loaded to make it 4-3 and walked Goodrum to tie it before being removed.

Geoff Hartlieb struck out Schoop and Cabrera, but Cron drew a walk to score Romine and give the Tigers a 5-4 lead. The Tigers batted around the order, as Pirates pitchers — who lead the majors in walks — allowed four in one inning for the third time this season.

But the Pirates had another rally in the fifth, as Evans homered for a 7-5 lead.

The Tigers cut it to 7-6 in the sixth, when Jones doubled down the left-field line off Rios to score Reyes.

Shelton was ejected for arguing a call by home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus in the seventh, when the Tigers scored six runs on five hits. The Pirates manager took exception after a “slight disagreement” when De Jesus called a ball on a pitch by Yacksel Rios in the heart of the strike zone, a mixup that hit catcher Jacob Stallings in the chest protector, .

“I didn’t think it was extremely warranted from the initial conversation of it,” Shelton said of the ejection. “And then once I was ejected, I kind of told him what I felt about the call.”

The Tigers loaded the bases again. Miguel Del Pozo replaced Rios and gave up successive singles to Stewart, Candelerio and Reyes as Detroit took a 10-7 lead. Niko Goodrum added a two-run double off the center-field wall for a 12-7 lead.

But the Pirates got some payback in the eighth as Gonzalez smacked a line drive down the right-field line to score Evans and Frazier to cut it to 12-9. In the ninth, Reynolds got a two-out single and scored on an Evans single to right before Frazier tied it with his two-run homer.

The Tigers got the go-ahead run in the 10th when Dawel Lugo singled to right field to score Jones from second base. Cole Tucker’s throw was on the mark, but catcher John Ryan Murphy lost the ball while trying to make the tag.

Murphy started the bottom of the 10th on second and advanced to third on a flare to shallow right by Gonzalez, then scored the tying run on Tucker’s sacrifice fly to center. Josh Bell hit a two-out single to put runners on first and second, but Colin Moran grounded out.

Detroit got the go-ahead again in the 11th on Candelario’s single down the right-field line off Dovydas Neverauskas, who was only available in an emergency, to score pinch runner Harold Castro. The Tigers added another run for a 15-13 lead when Romine drove in Reyes, who reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and reached third on Murphy’s throwing error. Goodrum drove in two more runs with a double to right.

Shelton credited the Pirates for battling back and sending the game into extra innings.

“When we got down, we came back. We took the lead. So yeah, there was a lot of good things,” Shelton said. “Continued to have good at-bats. Continued to have consistent at-bats throughout the game, and I think that’s a good sign building off what happened yesterday and then going into today, so I was very pleased with that.”

What Shelton wasn’t pleased with was watching the comeback on television inside the clubhouse.

“Yeah, it sucked,” Shelton said. “I didn’t like watching it from where I was watching it from. But I thought it was a situation where I didn’t have much choice. They told me to leave.”