With Ivan Nova scuffling Wednesday night at PNC Park, the Pirates were powered by their rookies in a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. The six runs came courtesy a wild pitch and the kids stacked fifth, sixth and seventh in the lineup. Jose Osuna and Diaz each had a pair of hits and drove in two runs, and Josh Bell tied a Pittsburgh rookie record with his 15th home run.
“We all had that same dream, looking back four or five years ago,” Bell said after helping even the series with a fourth-inning solo shot. “Playing together at West Virginia, going up through [Class] AA and [Class] AAA. For us to be winning ballgames up here instills a lot of pride in us.”
Bell wasn’t sure his line drive into the left-field corner would clear the short wall near the foul pole, but it had just enough oomph. Bell’s view was, “It just snuck out. Thankful for it.” Homer No. 15, Bell’s fifth from the right-handed side of the plate this season, tied Bell with Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner for most home runs hit by a Pirates rookie prior to the All-Star break.
“It’s cool to be mentioned in the same sentence as a great like that,” Bell said of Kiner, who ended 1946 with 23 homers. “Hopefully more to come. I’m just going to keep trucking along.”
The Pirates deployed an all-right-handed lineup against Rays left-hander Blake Snell, and so Osuna started in place of slumping Gregory Polanco in right field. Osuna, now batting .259 in his debut season, blasted a pair of RBI doubles, one to left field and one to right, and pushed his RBI count this season to 20, two more than Polanco has in nearly twice as many at-bats.
Asked after the game about the rookies’ play, Nova praised Diaz, the catcher who guided him through a frustrating start, and said what Osuna did, considering he hasn’t gotten regular playing time, was “special.” For Diaz, who has seen more starts recently with Francisco Cervelli injured, the day was especially meaningful because it was his mother’s 72nd birthday.
“It was special,” Diaz said, beaming. “More special because it is her birthday."
Nova, typically so sound on the mound, managed to limit the Rays (41-39) to two runs over five innings. He allowed seven hits, walked two and hit a batter. It marked the first time this season Nova failed to pitch at least six innings, ending a stretch of 15 consecutive six-plus-inning starts to start a season last matched by Pirates right-hander Eddie Solomon in 1981.
“It was not easy,” Diaz said. “But we fought all night.”
Manger Clint Hurdle said his young pitchers can learn from Nova’s ability to gut it out.
“If they can’t, they shouldn't be here,” the manager said. “That man was spent at the end of five innings. He poured everything he had into pitching five innings. It's the first time he hasn't pitched six innings since [September 2016]. How impressive is that?”
The Pirates bullpen contributed no drama, as relievers Daniel Hudson, Tony Watson, Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero, who took the loss Tuesday, each pitched a scoreless inning.
There was nothing Nova-esque about the way this one began. Cody Dickerson singled in the first inning, and Evan Longoria cracked a double past diving center fielder Andrew McCutchen to open the scoring. The lead did not last, but the Rays bats’ barrage had only just started.
The Pirates (36-42), meanwhile, hadn’t faced a left-handed starting pitcher in nearly three weeks, and they needed no re-introduction to the notion. They welcomed the lefty Snell instead with keen senses for the strike zone, and their patience paid off with a bundle of runs.
With two outs in the first inning, Snell walked McCutchen and David Freese. Osuna bounced a ground-rule double, putting the Pirates on the board. Josh Bell walked. With Snell laboring, Diaz poked a 2-2 pitch the other way for a two-run single, collecting his 12th and 13th RBIs of the season. By the end of the four-run first, Snell had run his pitch count to 36.
“It’s two outs and nobody on,” Hurdle said. “It all started so innocently.”
For Nova, the hits kept coming. He escaped from a jam in the second when Freese and Diaz combined to pinch the lead runner in a rundown between third base and home plate.
In the third, Dickerson singled, Longoria doubled down the left-field line — after pounding back-to-back foul balls which had home-run distance — Steven Souza Jr. was hit by pitch and Wilson Ramos lifted a sacrifice fly. Tim Beckham singled on the infield, loading the bases, but Nova induced an inning-ending ground ball from Adeiny Hechavarria, halting the rally.
“I made a lot of pitches,” Nova said, “but I made the right one when I needed to.”
“The first three frames were a fistfight for him,” Hurdle added.
There was no further damage against Nova, though the Rays had their share of opportunities. Nova issued walks in the fourth and fifth innings, his 12th and 13th free passes this season. A teammate came over after Nova departed, according to Nova, and told him to forget about the five-inning start. They’d picked him up, like he’d often picked them off earlier this season.
“They always find a way to make me feel good,” Nova said.
Stephen J. Nesbitt: snesbitt@post-gazette.com and Twitter @stephenjnesbitt.
First Published: June 29, 2017, 2:10 a.m.
