Kevin Newman comes up clutch, leads Pirates to walk-off win over White Sox

Kevin Newman came to bat in the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox in an ideal situation for someone with his track record of delivering walk-off wins: Bases loaded and no outs.

“It’s a good spot to be in with a tie ballgame,” Newman said. “Just went up there and tried to make good, solid contact. That’s not how it went.”

Newman hit a dribbler that Jimmy Cordero fielded and shoveled to catcher Yasmani Grandal in hopes of forcing pinch runner Jason Martin out at home, but Grandal dropped the ball.

The sixth career walk-off hit for Newman – but first by error – lifted the Pirates to a 5-4 victory Tuesday night at PNC Park.

“We got the win,” Newman said, “so that’s all that matters.”

It was the second consecutive walk-off win for the Pirates (14-26), who beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2, on Sunday on an Erik Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the ninth. The Pirates have won 10 of their last 19 games. Five of those have come by one run. They also lost three one-run games and two games by two runs in that span, something rookie manager Derek Shelton credits to their willingness to battle.

“They don’t quit,” Shelton said. “We started 4-17. They didn’t quit at all during that. They continue to play hard. They continue to put themselves in situations where we give ourselves an opportunity, and they finished the game. It was nice to see.”

Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings credited Joe Musgrove for fighting through a rough first inning in his second start since returning from the injured list. Musgrove said his slider wasn’t sharp and his sinker wasn’t staying down but, after giving up a leadoff double to Tim Anderson, he struck out Yoan Moncada and Grandal and got Jose Abreu to ground out.

Musgrove threw four solid innings in his second start since returning from the injured list, striking out five while allowing three hits and two walks. He threw 64 pitches, 43 for strikes, and got three of the final four batters he faced to go down swinging.

The trouble started when Dovydas Neverauskas relieved Musgrove. He gave up a double to Nick Madrigal, who hit the ball over Adam Frazier to the North Side Notch. Madrigal tried to score on Anderson’s bloop single to shallow center but Bryan Reynolds threw Madrigal out at the plate. It was the fourth runner Reynolds has thrown out at home.

The play went to review, and replays showed Madrigal sliding his left hand under the glove of catcher Jacob Stallings, who caught the ball to his right and stretched left to make the tag.

“Bryan made a great throw. To get that throw in the air, on a line is really impressive,” Stallings said. “I just dove towards the plate where I thought the play was. Replay he almost snuck his hand in there, but luckily it was too close to overturn.”

Home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak’s call was upheld, but the White Sox scored on the next play, another throw to the plate, when Newman bobbled Moncada’s grounder deep in the hole at second. Anderson scored from second to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. The next batter, Grandal, drilled a 1-1 fastball 380 feet to the right-field seats for a two-run homer and a 3-0 lead.

The Pirates rallied in the bottom of the fifth, when Josh Bell hit a two-out double down the left-field line and Ke’Bryan Hayes followed with a triple off the Clemente Wall to cut it to 3-1. Moncada snagged a sharp grounder by Newman along the third base line but Newman beat the throw and Hayes scored to make it 3-2.

Abreu extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a two-out single off Chris Stratton in the eighth, and Eloy Jimenez followed with a double off the Clemente Wall to score Abreu to stretch the lead to 4-2.

Newman and Jacob Stallings hit back-to-back doubles off White Sox reliever Evan Marshall to start the eighth inning and cut the Pirates’ deficit to one run, and Gonzalez hit an RBI single to score pinch runner Cole Tucker to tie it at 4-4. Gonzalez advanced to third after a pair of wild pitches by Marshall but was stranded when Reynolds struck out looking and lefty Ross Detwiler got Colin Moran to ground out to first to end the inning.

The Pirates started the ninth with back-to-back singles by Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell. Martin replaced Polanco at second base, and both runners advanced on a Jimmy Cordero wild pitch. Ke’Bryan Hayes walked to load the bases for Newman, whose bunt scored Martin.

“Jason Martin made a hell of a read, getting off the ball and getting to the plate and putting pressure on you to catch the ball at the plate,” Shelton said, “but all we need is a ball in play and things can happen, and (Newman) did a good job putting a ball in play.”