Oneil Cruz hit two home runs and Adam Frazier scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-5 comeback win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
Cruz’s ninth home run in the third opened the game’s scoring and his 10th home run in the ninth off Abner Uribe (2-1) tied the game at 4-4.
After trailing 3-2, the Pirates tied the game three times from the seventh inning on and won for the third time in their past four games.
Isaac Collins’ RBI single in the top of the 10th off Ryan Borucki (1-1) gave the Brewers a 5-4 lead. Alexander Canario set up the Pirates’ decisive comeback with an RBI double to lead off the bottom of the inning, which scored automatic runner Spencer Horwitz to make it 5-5.
Canario nearly scored the winning run moments later on a single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. But Canario was ruled out for leaving the baseline in an attempt despite to avoid the tag of catcher William Contreras.
Moments later, a wild pitch by Uribe allowed Frazier to cross the plate with the winning run. A day after snapping a streak of 26 consecutive games scoring four runs or fewer, Pittsburgh scored its most runs since April 22.
Contreras’ solo home run in the top of the ninth off Pirates reliever David Bednar put Milwaukee ahead 4-3. In the bottom of the inning against Uribe, Cruz knotted the game when his second homer traveled 427 feet to right-center.
Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich and Rhys Hoskins each had two hits to lead the Brewers.
Frazier and Kiner-Falefa each had three hits for Pittsburgh.
Things appeared to be lining up for Pirates ace Paul Skenes to pick up his first win since April 25 as he entered the sixth with a 2-0 advantage.
However, the Brewers scored a run in the sixth on a Hoskins two-out RBI single that scored Chourio.
In the seventh, Milwaukee’s Brice Turang tied the game with an RBI single off Tanner Rainey, which scored Jake Bauers.
Dennis Santana came on and gave up an RBI single to Chourio, scoring Andruw Monasterio to give Milwaukee a short-lived 3-2 lead.
