Brandon Lowe has appeared in 874 MLB games throughout his nine-year career.
Most, if we’re being honest, were probably more aesthetically pleasing or crisp than the Pirates’ 13-12 victory over the Giants at PNC Park on Tuesday.
But that perspective has allowed Lowe to see some things, especially when it comes to how teams perform over the final weeks of the season.
Lowe has experienced collapses. He’s also watched teams surge and get hot at the right time.
Which is why the Pirates second baseman wasn’t particularly concerned with how the team's 68th win of the season arrived. Only that it did.
“Just a long, weird one,” Lowe said. “Happy we walked out with a win.”
The Pirates (68-71) also left PNC Park with at least some shred of a chance after Rafael Flores Jr. reached on an error by Giants third baseman Osleivis Basabe and Lowe trotted home from third base in the ninth inning.
They’re five games back of the final National League Wild Card spot, but that number will likely be more digestible if the Pirates go 5-1 or 6-0 on this homestand by focusing on each day separately, something manager Don Kelly has been emphasizing more recently.
“I’ve seen weirder things happen,” Lowe said. “We were just talking about weird games. We’ve seen some incredible streaks happen. I’ve seen teams implode. I’ve been on teams that have imploded a little bit. Five games really isn’t that much. People can say that it is. But it’s not even a week’s worth of games. Anything can happen.
“That’s the biggest thing — we have to take care of things that we can take care of. We play our baseball, we’ll see where we are in a few weeks.”
Doubtful anyone would willingly claim some of what we saw in the 3-hour, 38-minute series opener between these teams:
• Thirty-five hits
• Twelve walks and four hit batters
• The Giants scoring five runs in the second, then allowing a nine-run third.
• The Pirates scoring nine runs in the third, then allowing a five-run eighth.
• The teams going 14 for 35 with runners in scoring position … but also still stranding 23.
You get the point, right? It was definitely not a masterpiece.
At the same time, it’s sort of what the Pirates needed, winning by any means possible. Lowe and Oneil Cruz had especially strong games, each finishing with four hits.
Cruz racked up four RBIs and flashed a terrific approach early, taking what he was given and continuing to hit singles up the middle or the opposite way instead of swinging out of his cleats and aiming for the river.
In 12 games since returning from the injured list, Cruz has hit .311 with a .970 OPS that ranks 19th in MLB.
Lowe also had four hits, made a terrific diving play and clobbered his 29th home run of the season, pummeling an elevated heater 411 feet to right-center.
Lowe now has 130 hits, matching his 2025 total and just two shy of his career-best mark of 132 in 2021.
“He’s been such a stabilizing force for us all year with the homers and defense,” Kelly said of Lowe. “The defense has been much, much better than anticipated. He showed that again [Tuesday]. Just the professional at-bats that he has every single day, he did it again [Tuesday].”
Cruz and Lowe delivered tone-setting games, but they weren’t alone. Every Pirate starter had at least one hit, while Nick Gonzales finished with three. Only Luis Arraez has a better average (.318) than Gonzales (.310) among NL hitters. Gonzales continues to lead MLB with 53 multi-hit games.
Meanwhile, Henry Davis broke open the Pirates’ nine-run third with a line-drive single to right, while Bryan Reynolds had several solid at-bats and scored three runs.
Pitching-wise, this was absolutely an adventure. Paul Skenes struggled to consistently command his fastball and allowed five earned runs over 4 2/3 innings. The three-run homer he gave up to Rafael Devers came on a middle-middle heater that the Giants designated hitter definitely did not miss.
Evan Sisk walked three in the eighth (all scored), Luke Weaver couldn’t really put a stop to the bleeding, and the Pirates bullpen had a dud after they were one of the best in baseball in August.
It happens.
Discard that part. But the Pirates should look to repeat the approach they took at the plate starting early Tuesday, nobody looking to do too much, everyone content to take what’s given.
Even if that happens to be — like Cruz — singles up the middle.
“Hitting’s contagious, and when you start to get that flow and start to get the guys in rhythm, they feel that,” Kelly said. “I thought that that was the best inning that we’ve had in a long time.”
It lasted 34:44, by the way. And didn't feature a single extra-base hit.
It turns out that stuff was needed on Tuesday, the same for remaining patient; the Pirates scored twice on bases-loaded walks and hammered plenty of Giants mistakes.
Tuesday’s win offered a reminder that this team is certainly capable of working hard. It just needs to work a little smarter, along with not really thinking about anything more than the current day.
“You look at where we are and the possibilities of what’s ahead of us, we have to take care of business on our end,” Lowe said. “We’ll see what happens. We started out the homestand right, and it sets us up for a chance to win a series tomorrow.”
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.