Ben Gamel's big plays in 6th inning propel Pirates past Tigers

If there was a ringing in Ben Gamel’s ears after the Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder chased down a fly ball before crashing into the corner wall, it wasn’t the words of his father.

“My dad always tells me, ‘Live to see another day,’” Gamel said of Frank Gamel, who was celebrating his birthday Tuesday night. “It’s like, well, I have to make a play for my guys.”

Showing a flair for the spectacular and reckless disregard for his body, Gamel shined in the sixth inning of a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers before an announced crowd of 8,329 at PNC Park.

“I play hard,” said Gamel, who went 3 for 5 with two RBIs. “If I feel like I can go out and make a play, that’s what I’m gonna do. It’s not this or that. It’s kind of how I’ve always played.”

Gamel made plays in the top and bottom of the sixth, saving a run with the catch then driving in the go-ahead run with a two-run single. It was his second highlight-reel catch in a three-game span, after a diving grab on Sunday at Wrigley Field.

“As a pitching staff, we definitely feed into that,” Pirates reliever David Bednar said. “It just kind of gives us the mindset to let it rip because they’re going to be behind us making plays.”

No wonder Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it a “really good night” for Gamel and an “extremely good” one for his young team, considering that they claimed Gamel off waivers from Cleveland in early May.

“He fits right into our culture,” Shelton said. “This guy plays hard, he has intensity to him. For a guy we brought in (who) had five years’ big league service time, he plays the game exactly the way we want our culture to be.”

The Pirates (50-89) clinched a series win and will try for their first series sweep of the season Wednesday night. They have lost eight times this season with a chance to clinch a sweep. They finished with 11 hits – collecting double digits for the third consecutive game – but stranded 14 runners and had two thrown out at home by the Tigers (65-75).

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Ke’Bryan Hayes went opposite field for a leadoff single, advanced to second on Yoshi Tsutsugo’s walk, to third on a flyout to right by Bryan Reynolds and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Colin Moran.

Michael Perez started the second inning with a double to center, which was followed by Hoy Park reaching on an error by catcher Eric Haase. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Dillon Peters, but Perez was thrown out at home plate while trying to score on a Hayes grounder to third and the Pirates came up empty.

The left-handed Peters was activated from the 10-day injured list before the game – reliever Shea Spitzbarth was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room on the roster – and struck out three of the first six batters he faced while retiring the side in the first two innings.

Willi Castro drew a leadoff walk in the third, then scored on Derek Hill’s triple to the left field corner to tie it at 1-1. Gamel fielded the ball but his right arm hit the wall on the cutoff throw to shortstop Kevin Newman, allowing Hill to slide safely into third.

“I probably should have taken a little more time,” Gamel said. “I was trying to get the ball in probably a little too quick. I just kinda fell into it, and it threw my throw off-line.”

Peters walked Wily Peralta, then gave up a single to Robbie Grossman that scored Hill to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Miguel Cabrera singled to right field to load the bases with one out but Peters escaped by striking out Jeimer Candelario and getting Haase to ground out to third.

Peters allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out five, and the Pirates’ bullpen combined for five scoreless innings. After giving up a leadoff double to Cabrera (3 for 4), David Bednar retired the next three batters in the eight. Chris Stratton gave up a leadoff single in the ninth, then got the final three outs to earn his third save.

Moran doubled to the left field corner in the third and tried to score on Kevin Newman’s bloop single but was thrown out at the plate by second baseman Jonathan Schoop.

“There’s not a lot of second baseman in the game who are making that throw,” said Shelton, who spent a season with Schoop in Minnesota as the Twins’ bench coach. “But if you spent any time around Jonathan Schoop, this guy throws probably as well as any infielder in the game.”

The fourth inning saw pinch hitter Anthony Alford draw a two-out walk, Hayes single up the middle and Tsutsugo walk to load the bases but Bryan Reynolds went down swinging. The Pirates had 10 runners left on base through the first five innings.

The Tigers threatened to score in the sixth against lefty reliever Sam Howard (3-4), as they had a runner on third when Hill hit a fly ball to the corner in left field. But Gamel saved a run by chasing it down and catching it before crashing into the wall for the final out.

“I think the only way he knows is 100 percent,” Shelton said. “Maybe he’s got a sponsorship with Red Bull or something because he’s got wings all the time.”

After Tsutsugo beat the throw from third for a two-out infield single in the bottom of the sixth, Reynolds drilled a double off the Clemente Wall and Moran drew a walk to load the bases. Gamel smacked a single through the right side to score Tsutsugo and Reynolds for a 3-2 lead.

“Like I said to our guys, we had the opportunity to break that game open three or four times and didn’t didn’t get the big hit,” Shelton said, “but then he got the big hit in that situation and we were able to hold the game.”