LDN - Sports

Pirates belt five homers, bury Phillies

[September 16, 2016] PHILADELPHIA -- With the Pittsburgh Pirates in the midst of a season-altering skid, Andrew McCutchen was glad he and his teammates could still show what they can do.

The Pirates crushed five home runs and put up an eight-run rally in the ninth inning Thursday in a 15-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, salvaging a split in a four-game series.

Pittsburgh's first seven runs all came from homers. The Pirates -- who were 3-13 in their last 16 games entering Thursday -- scored all eight runs in the ninth inning with two outs.

Nine of the Pirates' 13 hits went for extra bases. Two of the home runs were off the bat of McCutchen, and Jordy Mercer's three-run blast in the seventh inning broke open what had been a one-run Pittsburgh lead before the Pirates made it a laugher in the ninth.

"It's good we were able to do this on a getaway day and throw up 15, McCutchen said. "It shows we still got it. We're still in there, we just have to go out and do it."

Thursday marked the fifth time this season the Phillies allowed five home runs. Things got worse in the ninth inning off the bullpen combination of Severino Gonzalez and Colton Murray.

Eleven of the Pirates' 13 hits on the night produced at least one run. Pittsburgh went 7-for-11 with runners in scoring positon and stranded just one runner on base in the entire game.

"It's just good to see them swing the bat, hit, have fun and high-five," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.

Something else caught the eye of Phillies manager Pete Mackanin.

"The only thing that gave me any solace at all tonight was looking up at the scoreboard and seeing Kansas City was losing 14-0," Mackanin said. "That's all I can say."

On the mound for Pittsburgh, Chad Kuhl -- a Middletown, Del., native -- was pitching in front of about 100 friends and family. They saw one of the best major league starts of the 24-year-old's young career.

Kuhl (4-3) retired the first 12 batters he faced, and the righty struck out the side in the fourth inning. He needed just 44 pitches to get through the first four frames.

Many of Kuhl's supporters sat right behind the Pirates dugout, and Hurdle remarked he "knew what one of Kuhl's little league games must have been like."

It was not a normal start for Kuhl, but he did not let it get to him.

"I think I hid it pretty well, but I was extremely nervous tonight," Kuhl said. "I was just trying to execute pitches. I was trying to block it out the best I could. I wanted to eliminate that and focus on what I could focus on."

The rookie ran into some trouble in the fifth after Cameron Rupp led off with a double. Rupp scored on an RBI groundout, and Aaron Altherr also drove in a run in the frame with a two-out double.

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Kuhl wound up throwing six innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He struck out five and issued no walks. The Pirates skipped Kuhl's last turn in the rotation and he was pulled after 68 pitches in a Sept. 5 outing against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff actually went longer than Kuhl without pitching from the stretch. But that was because the first three hits the Pirates had were all solo homers.

John Jaso got the Pirates' long-ball barrage started right away, as he rocketed his third leadoff homer of the season to deep right-center field. McCutchen made it 2-0 in the fourth inning, and Sean Rodriguez lifted a ball over the fence to start the fifth.

Besides the homers, Eickhoff did not allow a runner on base until the seventh inning. Gregory Polanco led off that frame with a double, but it looked as though Eickhoff was going to get out through the inning without further damage after two quick outs.

Francisco Cervelli then reached on an error by third baseman Maikel Franco, and Mercer put the game out of reach with a three-run bomb. Mercer was the last batter Eickhoff faced.

Eickhoff (10-14) gave up six runs (three earned) on five hits in 6 2/3 innings.

"The first three home runs, I have no problems with those. Those happen," Eickhoff said. "Solo home runs don't hurt you. But three-run home runs, those just kill you. Those are frustrating."

McCutchen got his second homer of the night off Phillies reliever Frank Herrmann. It was McCutchen's third multi-homer game and the 12th of his career.

In the ninth, Pittsburgh had six separate two-out, run-scoring hits, one each from pinch hitter Josh Bell, David Freese, McCutchen, Polanco, Jung Ho Kang and Rodriguez.

NOTES: The Phillies announced they acquired OF Joey Curletta as part of the Carlos Ruiz trade with the Dodgers. Curletta, 22, spent most of 2016 in Class A and also spent 29 games in Double-A. In 106 games in 2016, he had a slash line of .251/.323/.463 and had 17 homers and 67 RBIs. ...The Phillies fired Triple-A manager Dave Brundage on Thursday, according to the Allentown Morning Call. Brundage led the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to a playoff appearance this season, and he went 286-292 in four seasons. Double-A manager Dusty Wathan was promoted to take Brundage's place, according to MLB.com. ... LHPs Zach Phillips and Wade LeBlanc made their Pirates debuts Wednesday night. A total of 54 players have now appeared this season for Pittsburgh, a franchise record. ... The Pirates announced that RHP Trevor Williams will make his first career major league start in the second game of a doubleheader against the Reds on Saturday. Williams, 24, had made two previous appearances out of the Pittsburgh bullpen.

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