Didi Gregorius hits 3-run home run in 7th inning as Phillies rally past Pirates

The Philadelphia Phillies kept falling behind the Pittsburgh Pirates but with their hopes of winning the NL East Division title on the line they were determined to go down swinging.

The biggest belonged to shortstop Didi Gregorius, who hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to lead the Phillies to an 8-6 win Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.

It marked their second comeback win against the Pirates (57-96), who lost for the fourth time in five games after winning six in a nine-game homestand and the first two games at Miami last weekend.

“We’re not a team that’s going to sit and hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The last two teams we’ve faced, that’s how they score runs. It’s good for our group. They need to play in games like this. They need to feel the atmosphere like it was here. It’s not like we’re playing bad baseball. We’re getting beat by a pitch or two.”

The Phillies (80-74) closed the gap to one game behind the Atlanta Braves (80-72) in the race for first place in the NL East, which might be their only playoff hopes given that the surging St. Louis Cardinals have won 14 consecutive after sweeping the Chicago Cubs in a doubleheader.

The Pirates led by as many as three runs in the fourth inning and regained the lead in the top of the seventh when pinch hitter Wilmer Difo drove Cam Bedrosian’s 0-1 slider 378 feet into the right field seats for a two-run homer to give the Pirates a 6-5 lead.

“I think the most vital thing to take away from this series – and even going a little further into this season – is the mindset of competing,” Difo said through team translator Mike Gonzalez. “It’s important for these young guys to understand that no matter the results you’ve got to go out there with the mindset and the heart willing to compete.”

Pirates lefty Chasen Shreve started the bottom of the seventh by walking Bryce Harper before getting JT Realmuto to fly out to center and striking out pinch hitter Luke Williams. But Andrew McCutchen reached on a grounder to third, and Gregorius turned on Shreve’s 0-1 slider for a 369-foot homer to right field.

“It wasn’t a terrible pitch,” Shelton said. “It was a slider down and away to a veteran hitter who was probably guessing he was going to get a slider and cheated and got the head out. He got the head out and got it elevated in this ballpark, and it went out.”

The Pirates got off to a good start in Sam Howard’s first career start, as the lefty reliever thrived in the opener role by striking out the side on a dozen pitches.

Right-hander Miguel Yajure, recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Friday afternoon when lefty starter Dillon Peters went on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain, replaced Howard and completed a 1-2-3 second inning before retiring the first two batters of the third.

“I was really confident, more than I though,” said Yajure, who missed six weeks this summer with a right forearm strain. “I think I was (feeling good), and that’s why I was started really good, throwing in the zone.”

But Yajure’s velocity was down, and Phillies ninth-year veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson sent an 89-mph four-seamer 380 feet into the left field seats for his first major league home run and a 1-0 Phillies lead.

The Pirates caught a break when Odubel Herrera hit a line drive off the wall in right-center but it bounced directly to center fielder Bryan Reynolds for a single. Yajure walked Jean Segura but got Harper to line out to Reynolds to end the third.

That lead didn’t last long, as Reynolds led off the fourth with a single to left, Colin Moran walked and Ben Gamel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Kevin Newman smacked a two-run double to the left-center gap for a 2-1 lead, and Michael Perez poked a changeup low and away off the end of his bat to left for a two-run single and 4-1 lead.

The Phillies got another solo shot, as Brad Miller lined a 90-mph four-seamer 388 feet to right field for his 20th homer to cut it to 4-2.

Matt Vierling doubled to left and scored when Harper doubled to right, which skipped off the glove of Yoshi Tsutsugo and went high into the air before dropping behind him. Yajure hit Realmuto with a pitch and was replaced by Shelby Miller, who struck out Brad Miller to end the inning with a 4-3 lead.

Shelby Miller, however, started the sixth by walking McCutchen, who advanced to third on a single by Gregorius. After getting Freddy Galvis to fly out to shallow left, Shelby Miller was replaced by Nick Mears. A wild pitch skipped under the glove of Perez to allow McCutchen to score the tying run, and pinch hitter Ronald Torreyes delivered an RBI single for the go-ahead run and a 5-4 Phillies lead.

The Pirates and Phillies traded homers in the seventh, with the two-run shot by Difo followed by a three-run blast by Gregorius. The Pirates loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth but Phillies pitcher Hector Neris got Ke’Bryan Hayes to ground out to escape the jam.

In the ninth, the Pirates got the tying runs on base when Reynolds singled to right and Ben Gamel drew a full-count walk against Ian Kennedy, who earned his 26th save when he got Kevin Newman to fly out to center to end the game.

“We continue to go,” Shelton said. “We got to the back end of their bullpen, which is their guys. We continued to have good at-bats. We had the bases loaded in the eighth. We had the winning right at the plate in the ninth. We came back and tied it and took the lead. I thought our guys grinded through at-bats the whole night and did a good job. We just came up short.”