Against the odds, Pirates overcome injuries, inexperience, low payroll to sweep Dodgers

Against all odds, the Pirates this week swept a three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles for the first time since 2000.

How the heck did that happen?

Consider:

• The Dodgers’ payroll of $280,839,078 at the start of the season led the majors and was nearly six times greater than the Pirates’ $55,761,800 (28th), according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

• The Pirates’ run differential of minus-77 is the worst in the majors; the Dodgers’ plus-112 is the best.

• Dodgers 36-year-old relief pitcher David Price has a salary this season of $32 million that represents nearly 60% of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ entire Opening Day payroll.

• The Dodgers have two players in their lineup, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who have been MVP. The Pirates had four rookies in the starting lineup Wednesday night.

• The Pirates have two players, Jack Suwinski and Tucupita Marcano, who came directly to the majors this season from Double-A Altoona. Only two Pirates have more home runs than Suwinski’s five, and he was in Altoona for most of April. Marcano homered in back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday.

• The Pirates were weakened by seven regulars or semi-regulars on the injured list, while the Dodgers were missing only Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy. Bellinger entered the game late Wednesday and was 0 for 2.

So, again, how did the Pirates sweep the Dodgers?

Start with Dodgers $16 million closer Craig Kimbrel’s blown save Monday night in the Pirates’ 6-5 victory. The Pirates got their money’s worth from David Bednar (base salary $715,000) when he threw 50 pitches in two innings to earn the victory.

The Pirates won four of six games on the West Coast road trip, losing two close games in San Diego. They lost in San Diego on Friday night after the Padres scored two unearned runs when first baseman Josh VanMeter failed to step on the bag for a sure out.

Undaunted, they completed the sweep of the Dodgers by playing error-free baseball over the final 25 innings and recording four double plays Wednesday.

Center fielder Bryan Reynolds, who homered twice in Los Angeles, said he was pleased to see the team set aside the San Diego disappointment and recover quickly.

“Every game we’re going to come in and battle and fight,” he said. “It would be easy to come off the San Diego series and be in a daze after just missing it. But we came back and battled like we did and got the sweep. It’s big.”

In the aftermath of the Dodgers series, there was talk in the visitors’ clubhouse of developing a winning culture. The reality is the team is still losing more than it wins (22-27), but the basic theme is that confidence is soaring now that the players believe they can compete with anyone.

Relief pitcher Chase DeJong said the Pirates are a team of “grinders.”

“We play the game hard, and we play the game right,” he said.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was impressed, remarking that the Pirates “played their tails off against us.”

“I thought they outpitched us, situationally. Offensively, they were better than us. They made plays on the defensive side that flipped innings.”

The next test comes Friday night at PNC Park when the Pirates open a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Plus, there will be 110 other games that can send the season flying in a variety of directions.

Starting pitcher JT Brubaker, whose ERA has fallen from 6.20 on May 1 to 4.15 on June 1, gets the ball first, looking for his first victory of the season. He’ll be followed by Roansy Contreras on Saturday and Zach Thompson on Sunday.

The starting rotation is making strides after a slow start.

Contreras, another rookie, will make his third consecutive start. He has allowed two earned runs in 10 innings. Like Brubaker, Thompson has lowered his 10.05 ERA at the end of April to 5.18.

Veteran Jose Quintana, 33, has a 1.37 ERA and .230 batting average against in his past five outings. He said the Dodgers series can build confidence, but maintaining it is the key.

“When you face teams like that and do really good things, you need to keep going,” he said. “This is really special. To play like we’ve been playing all three nights, we showed something.”

DeJong said big plays such as the double plays Wednesday are nice, but he wants to see them become the norm.

“Instead of being, ‘Oh, my gosh, that was an incredible, amazing play,’ it becomes the status quo,” he said. “That’s the culture that we’re trying to establish here.”