NEW YORK — For most of Tuesday’s game, the Pirates were playing the perfect spoiler.
They aren’t going to the playoffs this season. All they can do at this point to affect the larger baseball landscape is play their best, try to steal as many wins as they can and perhaps ruin a couple of nights for the teams they play who do have postseason aspirations.
Such was the case against the New York Yankees, who have all but locked up a playoff spot by this point. More poignantly, more than 40,000 people showed up to Yankee Stadium to see a glimpse of history, as their slugger Aaron Judge entered the game needing two homers to tie Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 homers in a season.
And for eight innings, the Pirates kept Judge and his team at bay. Through their own offensive aptitude and a strong rookie starting pitching performance, they entered the bottom of the ninth with a four-run lead, sending right-hander Wil Crowe to the mound to close it out.
That’s when history, and the might of the Yankees, came over the Pirates and washed them away in a 9-8 loss.
First, Judge stepped up, worked a 3-1 count, then crushed a leadoff solo homer to left for his 60th of the season.
In theory, no worries, but Crowe never got his mojo back.
He allowed a double, issued a walk, gave up a single to load the bases, then left a changeup in the middle of the plate on a 2-2 count to Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton, the other Yankees slugger, crushed it on a line drive with a 118 mph exit velocity for a walk-off grand slam, sending the Pirates to a shocking collapse.
“They were laying off the slider, just getting strike one, just trying to get ahead, got behind to Judge,” Crowe said. “I was just going to go after him since we had the lead there. Just threw a bad pitch, and he did what he's supposed to do with it. Then, a couple other pitches I thought I made decent pitches. The last one, probably not. I haven't seen it yet. Just unfortunate.”
Among other things, it erased a really strong night from Bryan Reynolds.
The Pirates outfielder went 4-for-5 with a couple of immense moments.
In the seventh, with Pittsburgh down 4-3, Reynolds led off the inning by leaving the building, crushing a first-pitch fastball 424 feet into the second deck in right field to tie the game.
Then, with the game still tied in the eighth, Reynolds got a one-out at-bat with runners on the corners. He delivered again, this time poking a roller through the left side of the infield to give the Pirates the lead. It was his sixth four-hit game in his career, and the homer — his 24th of the year — matches his career-high for long balls in a season.
And when Reynolds’ performance was finished, Rodolfo Castro played the encore. Digging in after Reynolds’ single, Castro got into a 1-2 hole against former Pirate Clay Holmes. Castro then got a slider middle-middle. He crushed it to right-center, stood to watch it, turned to his dugout to celebrate, then began a slow trot around the bases as the ball landed in the second row of the stands for a three-run blast.
Rookie right-hander Luis Ortiz played an admirable role in the Pirates’ efforts, as well, in front of a raucous environment and against one of the best offenses in baseball.
If the hype train surrounding Ortiz began rolling last week when he tossed 5 ⅓ scoreless innings against the Cincinnati Reds, it has now fully left the station and is picking up steam.
Ortiz held the Yankees without a hit through the first three frames with only one batter, catcher Jose Trevino, even hitting a ball out of the infield. In the fourth, the Yankees finally registered a hit on a one-out single to right, but Ortiz bounced back with a pair of strikeouts.
He was finally gotten to in the fifth, but even then it wasn’t straightforward. Yankees rookie Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a deep but playable fly ball to the wall in right-center. Reynolds and right fielder Diego Castillo converged, with Reynolds camping under it, but Castillo kept running and got in Reynolds’ airspace. The ball bounced in and out of Reynolds’ glove for a three-base error. Ortiz proceeded to allow a pair of RBI singles in the inning, though only one of the two runs he gave up was earned.
All things considered, it’s hard to qualify the outing as anything other than a success.
“I felt great. This is something I've been waiting for for a long time,” Ortiz said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “Something to experience, just facing teams at this caliber. I felt great. I kept sticking to my plan, attacking the zone, and things turned out pretty good for me."
He still left with the Pirates down a run, and there started the roller coaster. The Pirates grabbed the lead back in the sixth on a two-out, two-run double from catcher Jason Delay. The Yankees snatched it back with a pair of runs on a two-run single in the sixth. Reynolds homered to tie it, singled to take the lead, and Castro polished off the offensive effort.
Somehow, none of that was enough. Crowe made his mistakes, while Judge and Stanton stole the show, leaving the Pirates — the potential spoilers — to reckon with another game gone horribly wrong.
Around the horn
Early Tuesday, the Pirates announced that they’d promoted six prospects from Double-A Altoona to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Right-hander Quinn Priester (the No. 3 prospect on MLB Pipeline), catcher Endy Rodriguez (No. 6), infielder Malcom Nunez (No. 12), outfielder Matt Gorski (No. 22), right-hander Colin Selby and infielder Aaron Shackelford were all promoted. Priester is expected to be activated and start Wednesday in his Triple-A debut.
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: September 21, 2022, 2:53 a.m.
Updated: September 21, 2022, 9:53 a.m.
