On Saturday, September 23, the Pittsburgh Pirates accomplished something that had never been done in the 142-year history of the franchise. Down 9-0 after three innings, the Pirates rallied, scoring thirteen unanswered runs en route to a 13-12 victory over a Reds team with playoff aspirations.
The game couldn’t have begun worse for Pittsburgh. The Reds took a 3-0 lead through one inning after Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Tyler Stephenson each hit home runs. The lead grew to 4-0 after T.J. Friedl hit an inside-the-park home run when Pirates right fielder Joshua Palacios misplayed the ricochet in the right field corner. The Reds scored four more runs in the second inning and added another in the third.
With all hope of a win looking lost, the Pirates’ bats responded in a big way. Alfonso Rivas brought Jack Suwinski home in the fourth with an RBI single, but the deficit was still eight. In the sixth, Ji-hwan Bae scored Jared Triolo with an RBI single, and two batters later, Joshua Palacios singled in Endy Rodriguez to make it 9-3. All of a sudden, Bryan Reynolds stepped to the plate and snuck a three-run homer over the wall in right to cut the deficit to only three.
In the seventh, the Pirates loaded the bases with no one out. With a 3-2 count, Rivas came up clutch with a bases-clearing double. The game was tied. But the Bucs weren’t done. In the top of the eighth inning, Suwinski brought in Reynolds to give the Pirates their first lead of the game, at 10-9. Rivas delivered again with an RBI single that scored Suwinski to make it 11-9. In the next at-bat, Bae doubled to left center, scoring Triolo and Rivas to make it 13-9. The Pirates had scored thirteen unanswered runs, leaving the Reds and their fans absolutely stunned.
But the Reds weren’t going to go quietly. In the bottom half of the eighth, Nick Martini grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Elly De La Cruz, then Encarnacion-Strand singled to center field to score Martini and make it a 13-11 game. With runners on first and second and one out, Pirates relief pitcher Colin Selby got Stephenson to hit a ground ball to Bae, who made a diving play to snag the ball, ran to the second base bag, and fired to first for an inning-ending double play.
The Pirates did not score in the top of the ninth and needed three outs to close out what would be an improbable victory. The first two Reds hitters reached, making it second and third with no one out. Jake Fraley grounded out to second, bringing in Joey Votto and moving the tying run to third base with only one out. Pirates pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski needed to make some quality pitches to avoid going into extra innings. And that’s what he did. Mlodzinski was able to strike out De La Cruz on the eleventh pitch of the at-bat, making it two outs. He then got Jonathan India to fly out to center and end the game. 13-12 Pirates.
For the Reds, it was their first loss when leading by nine runs since they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 10-9 on April 28, 2004. It was also the biggest blown lead in Major League Baseball this season. For the Pirates, it was the first time they had come back and won a game after being down nine runs since they entered the National League as Allegheny City in 1882. They had overcome deficits of eight runs four times previously, most recently on July 15, 1994, when they came back from down 8-0 to beat the Houston Astros 11-8.
Each team had sixteen hits in the game. The Reds were led by Encarnacion-Strand, who went 3-5 with a home run and four RBIs, and Spencer Steer, who also went 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored. The Pirates were led by Rivas, who had a career night, going 3-5 with five runs batted in. Reynolds went 1-4 with a home run and three RBIs, and Triolo went 4-5 with three runs scored.
