Pirates Insider: Why Wednesday's walk-off win might've saved their season

With the Pirates trailing by two and their season teetering on Wednesday afternoon, Rafael Flores Jr. calmly grabbed a bat and jogged upstairs to the batting cages adjacent to the service tunnel in the bowels of PNC Park.

As Flores worked to get loose and calibrate his swing, there's no way he could've pictured what happened next.

Instead of losing a game, a series and potentially a grip on their season, the Pirates flew west early Wednesday evening with momentum, the result of three homers over the final two innings — two from Flores — to produce a walkoff, 4-3 victory over the Tigers.

Flores pinch hit for Henry Davis in the seventh and homered. He did it again in the ninth before Brandon Lowe whipped the crowd of 18,208 into an absolute frenzy when his homer clanked off the right-field foul pole for his fourth career walkoff homer.

“Sick,” Flores said. “That was a Cinderella story — tying homer, walkoff. That’s what you dream of as a little kid.”

And as a Pirates fan, honestly.

Wednesday was a victory that might’ve saved their season.

Had the Pirates (62-67) not pulled off the improbable comeback, they would’ve short-circuited any momentum generated by taking two of three from the Red Sox this weekend. It would have dropped them to 7-11 in August, with consecutive wins occurring just once during the month.

Now, they’ve suddenly won five of seven after finishing a 4-2 homestand. One huge key has been Flores, who’s hitting .435 during that time and leads all MLB hitters with five home runs and 10 RBIs during that time.

Wednesday’s victory reinforced the never-say-die attitude that has permeated the clubhouse for much of the season and fed the internal belief that the Pirates are a hot streak away from climbing back into contention.

If the Pirates can actually fare well against the Dodgers, Padres and Cardinals — no easy task, to be sure — their reward would be a homestand with visits from two of the worst teams in baseball in the Giants and Angels.

“I’ve said it before, it’s a long season,” Lowe said. “You’re going to have peaks and valleys. We weren’t playing our best baseball before, and now we’re playing some really good ball. Just keep it here and keep playing good baseball.”

'Results of that work'

As reporters gathered around Lowe in the jubilant home clubhouse, he jokingly tried to shoo everyone toward the guy with just 26 games of MLB experience — or 841 fewer than the veteran Lowe.

“You guys should be talking to ‘Flo’ and me,” Lowe said playfully. “We’re not in that position if not for his bat.”

Like most things Lowe says, he has a point. Flores deserves the attention, because he’s been the August equivalent to Esmerlyn Valdez in July, an extra-strong cup of coffee in the afternoon.

Flores’ first homer came on a 2-1 cutter left middle. He crushed it 422 feet at 106.4 mph to left. Two innings later, facing Tigers closer Kenley Jansen, Flores expected another cutter and went for it down 0-2 in the count.

Boom, again. Flores hit his second one 431 feet at 110 mph, an even louder bomb.

“Tough pitch to hit,” Kelly said. “He killed it, too.”

The two swings from Flores brought the Pirates back from the dead, preventing what would’ve been a long and depressing flight, but they also represented plenty within his own world.

In 65 games with Triple-A Indianapolis this season, Flores hardly established himself as some sort of prolific power hitter. He had just four home runs in 228 at-bats. But during that time, Flores felt like he learned a lot about himself and how his swing works as a bigger player.

Less is more, Flores noticed. With his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame, he doesn’t need to swing with every ounce of force for the ball to go. Make contact, think line drive, and let those limbs do the work.

As physically gifted as Flores might be, his ability and willingness to make adjustments at the plate or on defense has been impressive. Those traits surfaced in crunch time, too.

“Flo has continued to work hard, going down to Triple-A and getting better,” Kelly said. “He’s always asking questions, he's always trying to figure out to be better, and I think we're seeing the results of that work and the consistency that it's bringing as well.”

'Such a stabilizing force'

As much as Flores worked on the physical side of things in the Minor Leagues, he’s also smart and aware and took a lesson from Ryan O’Hearn after the former produced a three-homer, 10-RBI game earlier this season.

What did O’Hearn tell Flores? No matter the result, forget about your last at-bat.

“He’s like, ‘You hit one homer, it didn’t happen.’ Go to your next AB like if it didn’t happen and just have another good AB,’ ” Flores explained, relaying O’Hearn’s advice. “I’m gonna use that my entire career now.”

It’s one of countless ways Pirates veterans have helped younger players this season, but it’s also amazing how loud the noise can be you one of them says nothing at all.

You know, like Lowe staring down the right-field line, praying the ball stayed fair, then flipping his bat in style.

Lowe has been a voice of reason the entire year but especially given what has happened coming out of the All-Star break (21-31), reminding everyone that it’s a long season and nothing has been decided good or bad.

It was fitting he was the one to call game against the Tigers.

Also with two strikes against Jansen, Lowe sat on an inside cutter, cleared his hands and hips and uncorked a gorgeous swing for his team-high 27th of the season. That’s now the most homers for a Pirate since Josh Bell had 37 in 2019.

"He's been so consistent and such a stabilizing force," Kelly said of Lowe. :"The homers are unbelievable. We've talked about his defense improve. And the power and big at-bats he's had ... he means a lot to us."

Gregory Soto, Camilo Doval, Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery held the line after Paul Skenes allowed three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, walking four and striking out five. Amazingly, Pittsburgh’s bullpen has been one of the more effective ones in baseball this month.

Which is all the more reason why Wednesday’s game mattered: The offense, now with Oneil Cruz back, is plenty capable. The part that previously failed the Pirates — the bullpen — has improved. It’s actually on a few of the starting pitchers to deliver more.

But more than any one individual ingredient, Wednesday’s win perpetuated a character trait the Pirates have worked all season to perfect, one that needs to define their upcoming road trip, as well.

Never giving up and eventually punching back.

“The guys here have been fighting,” Kelly said. “I think that is what our team is all about: continuing to go, continuing to fight and knowing we're not gonna give up.”

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.