Paul Skenes had one of his worst starts of the year on Tuesday night. It should have cost the Pirates a game. Instead, a bench player with 30 career at-bats bailed him out with a night that had not been done in Pittsburgh in over a century.
Skenes lasted just 4 1/3 innings against Detroit. He gave up three earned runs on four hits, struck out five, and walked four in 81 pitches. Command was the issue. He never got comfortable in the strike zone, and the Tigers made him pay when he did leave one over the middle. His night ended with a runner-scoring single to Gleyber Torres that gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.
Pittsburgh looked cooked. Down three in the seventh at PNC Park, in a rough stretch, with the ace off the mound, and a manager who has been under fire for a passive approach.
Then Rafael Flores Jr. did something no Pirates hitter has done since at least 1900.
Flores came off the bench and hit two solo home runs in a single game as a substitute. That is the first time a Pirates player has done it in the entire live-ball era. The first shot cut the deficit to 3-2 in the seventh. The second tied it in the ninth. Brandon Lowe finished the walk-off in the bottom of the ninth with a solo blast of his own for a 4-3 win.
Flores is a 26-year-old journeyman who spent most of the summer at Triple-A Indianapolis. The Pirates called him up two weeks ago to plug a hole in their outfield rotation. He had done nothing at the plate to that point, striking out in six of his first 12 major league at-bats.
None of that mattered on Tuesday. He got two swings and he did not miss either one, and now his name is in a Pittsburgh record book that goes back to before World War I.
For Skenes, the win was a lifeline. He is having a much harder second season than the one that won him the National League Rookie of the Year. His ERA is up nearly a full run from last year, and the strikeout totals are down. The Pirates say the mechanical issues are minor, but the numbers have crept in the wrong direction all summer.
He is still Pittsburgh’s best pitcher, and he is still one of the most electric arms in baseball. The aura of last season is gone, though. Teams are laying off his splinker more consistently, and the hitters are willing to fall behind in counts because they trust that he will eventually leak one over.
The bigger picture for Pittsburgh is the same as it has been for two months. This is not a playoff team. It is a team trying to build a foundation around Skenes, Oneil Cruz, and whatever homegrown pieces are ready. Nights like Tuesday, chaotic and improbable and just a little bit magical, are the ones fans will remember when the season is over.
Skenes will get another chance to right himself later this week. He has to. The Pirates cannot afford to keep needing bench guys to hit walk-off history to save him.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
