Braves hammer 18 hits as Pirates lose out on 1st series sweep of the season

When he was on third base with a two-run lead and no outs in the first inning against the Atlanta Braves, John Nogowski never imagined he would find himself on the mound in the ninth.

“No, but baseball is a pretty crazy game,” Nogowski said. “It keeps you on your toes, and as much as of a whirlwind as this week has been, I’m not really counting anything out at this point.”

That the newly acquired first baseman ended up pitching in his third game with the Pittsburgh Pirates was symbolic of the storm that passed through PNC Park for a 78-minute rain delay on Wednesday afternoon.

The Braves hammered 18 hits — including five doubles and two home runs — on their way to a 14-3 win that prevented the Pirates from clinching their first series sweep of the season.

“We just did not command the ball throughout,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think we talked about it (Tuesday) how we did not walk a guy. I don’t know how many guys we walked (eight), but we just did not throw the ball on the plate. We paid for it.”

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Pirates (32-54), who visit the New York Mets for a four-game series before the All-Star break. For the Braves (42-44), Ronald Acuna Jr. and Dansby Swanson both went 3 for 5 and Abraham Almonte went 2 for 3 with four RBIs.

The Braves took a 1-0 lead against Wil Crowe in the first inning, when Ozzie Albies doubled to right and scored on Austin Riley’s single to the left-center gap.

The Pirates answered by hitting Braves lefty Drew Smyly (7-3) hard, as Adam Frazier started with a leadoff single and reached third on a Ke’Bryan Hayes double to right. Frazier was thrown out at home on Bryan Reynolds’ shot to shortstop, but Jacob Stallings hit a first-pitch fastball 400 feet over the Clemente Wall and into the right-field seats for his sixth home run and a 3-0 lead.

The hit parade continued, as Nogowski singled to left and Wilmer Difo doubled to left. With two outs, Smyly intentionally walked No. 8 hitter Jared Oliva to get to Crowe, who lined out to third.

Acuna led off the third inning by hitting a 444-foot shot to left field for his 24th home run to cut the Pirates’ lead to 3-2. Those were the only runs allowed by Crowe, who allowed six hits and two walks while striking out four in 4 2/3 innings on 97 pitches.

Shelton lamented the lack of command and execution by his pitchers, which eventually caught up to them, as well as the inability to manufacture runs. The Pirates stranded 14 runners.

“When you do that, you put yourself in a hole,” Shelton said. “We took the early lead and had multiple opportunities to extend that lead and did not take advantage that. When we put the extra bases on, they definitely took advantage of it.”

Kyle Crick (1-1) didn’t fare as well in the sixth, when he gave up four runs on two hits and two walks and Chasen Shreve allowed another run on one hit and two walks.

The game was interrupted by a thunderstorm in the top of the seventh. When it resumed, Nogowski singled, Difo walked and Ben Gamel got a pinch-hit single to load the bases with two outs before A.J. Minter got Frazier swinging to end the inning.

The Braves padded their lead to 14-3 with a seven-run eighth as they batted around the order against Duane Underwood Jr., who gave up doubles to Arcia, Swanson and Adrianza and an Almonte home run among eight hits.

At that point, the Pirates didn’t want to further tax their bullpen, so bench coach Don Kelly started asking if any position players had pitching experience. In the Pirates’ previous series against the Braves, Difo allowed eight runs on six hits — including a grand slam to Ehire Adrianza — in a 20-1 loss on May 21 so he was quickly ruled out.

“He was not pitching again today,” Shelton said, “especially against Atlanta.”

That Nogowski, who made six appearances in the minors, got the nod made for a memorable moment, as shortstop Cole Tucker trotted out to first base for the first time in his career during warmups.

Nogowski made quick work of the Braves. After getting Ender Inciarte to ground out to short, he gave up a single to Swanson but turned a 1-4-3 double play on Guillermo Heredia. Nogowski, who went 4 for 5, hit his fourth single to start the bottom of the inning but was stranded.

“Whatever I need to do to make myself valuable, I’m going to do it,” Nogowski said. “Hopefully, that’s not pitching too much. Hopefully, that’s with the bat and with my glove. But anything I can do to help us win, if that means we can save a reliever tomorrow in this next series, let’s absolutely do it.”