After slow start, Pirates pound Orioles for 1st win at Camden Yards since 2008

The Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t get on base through the first four innings, as Baltimore Orioles right-hander Spenser Watkins pitched to perfection by retiring the first 13 batters he faced.

Then the floodgates opened.

The Pirates pounded the Orioles for eight hits and eight runs over the next three innings, including four after a call at the plate was overturned, for a 8-1 win Sunday afternoon at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

It was only their second win ever at Camden Yards (2-11) — the first since 2008 — as the Pirates avoided a sweep in the three-game series and ended the Orioles’ five-game winning streak. The Pirates continue their 10-game, three-city road trip by playing a four-game series at Arizona.

“We played well all around,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We scrapped some hits together in the fifth. We hadn’t gotten any baserunners, and we really didn’t hit the ball hard. But we were able to do it, and we ran the bases well. … Overall, we played a really efficient game.”

Bryse Wilson (2-6) struck out three of the first six batters he faced before giving up a leadoff home run in the third to Jorge Mateo, who connected on a curveball and dropped it just inside the left-field foul pole for his 11th home run and a 1-0 lead.

Wilson allowed only one run on four hits without a walk while striking out five through five innings. Eric Stout, Colin Holderman and Yerry De Los Santos combined to toss four scoreless innings in relief.

“We played some quality baseball,” said Pirates outfielder Greg Allen, who scored two runs. “We’ve been on the tough side of some losses lately, but on the pitching side, Bryse went out there and got it done. He had that one mistake where Mateo caught that one out front, but outside of that, I thought he dominated.”

Watkins (4-2) retired the first 13 batters he faced — four by strikeout — before Michael Chavis beat Rougned Odor’s throw on a high chopper to third base. It was the first of four hits in the three-run fifth inning.

Bligh Madris followed with a single past second baseman Terrin Vavra’s diving attempt to put a pair of runners on base. Allen singled to right to score Chavis, tying it at 1-1 and putting runners on the corners. Cal Mitchell sliced a single over short to score Madris for a 2-1 lead. Allen reached third on a wild pitch, then scored for a 3-1 lead when Jose Godoy grounded into a fielder’s choice for a forceout at second.

“I thought he did a really nice job executing the cutter, especially the front door. You don’t see a lot of guys who throw a front-door cutters,” Shelton said of Watkins. “We got him a little bit in middle of plate. I thought our left-handers did a nice job of getting the barrel out.

“Even though we didn’t square balls up, we were able to get them through the infield and be able to adjust the approach a little bit. We saw he was pounding the cutter in there so maybe we got a little more contact out front.”

Watkins was pulled after walking Bryan Reynolds and striking out Ke’Bryan Hayes in the sixth. After Reynolds stole second, Chavis drove him in by roping a single to right off Bryan Baker to give the Pirates a 4-1 edge.

The Pirates needed to win a challenge to stretch their lead in the seventh. Allen drew a leadoff walk, reached second on Mitchell’s sacrifice and tried to score on Kevin Newman’s broken-bat single to short. Mateo’s throw beat Allen to the plate, where catcher Robinson Chirinos blocked Allen’s path for what appeared to be the final out of the inning.

After a video review, however, Allen was ruled safe to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead. That call drew the ire of Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who was ejected for questioning the call.

The overturned call was compounded when Reynolds smoked a 109.6-mph single to score Newman to make it 6-1. Hayes followed with a 389-foot blast that hit the top of the fence in left-center for his sixth home run to give the Pirates a seven-run lead.

“Yeah, that’s probably about as confident as any challenge I’ve done,” Shelton said with a laugh. “We didn’t even get on the phone. It was a straight block. It’s so ambiguous as to what the rule is. This one was just a clear one. (Chirinos) just got caught square in the middle of the plate. I thought that one was pretty clear.”