PITTSBURGH – After three innings on Wednesday, the Pirates had produced just one hit across their last seven innings, dating back to Tuesday’s game. Then Ryan O'Hearn switched his cleats from a highlighter pink and yellow set to a mustard yellow pair. The floodgates suddenly opened.
“I didn't get a hit and I looked down, and I was like, ‘I don't think these look very good,’” O’Hearn said. “So I ran [to the clubhouse] and changed my shoes. Then I didn't get out the rest of the night.”
It took until the fourth inning, but the Pirates finally resumed their 2026 offensive explosion. Pittsburgh tallied six hits and five runs in the frame, with an O’Hearn double mixed in, leading to an 11-1 win over Seattle at PNC Park.
O’Hearn tallied four hits with three RBIs, while Endy Rodríguez added two hits and also drove in three. Pittsburgh’s pitching combination of Braxton Ashcraft and Carmen Mlodzinski walked zero batters and struck out 13 to keep Seattle down. And even without a home run, the Pirates poured on the runs and managed to drop 15 hits, bringing their season total to 712 – tied with the Dodgers for the Major League lead.
“We did a really good job of slowing it down, letting it come to us and barreling up balls with guys in scoring position,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said after the game. “I think that’s when we get those big hits, we tend to score a lot of runs. Every player who goes up there wants to be the guy. I think we did a really good job with more of a singles-doubles approach. It wasn’t like guys were going up swinging for the fences. We continued to stack at-bats, one through nine.”
Mariners starter Bryan Woo held the Pirates down through the first three innings before Bryan Reynolds singled to extend his on-base streak to 29 games – the longest single-season streak for the organization since 2005. Reynolds sparked the Pirates as Nick Gonzales reached on a fielder’s choice and O’Hearn doubled.
O’Hearn said postgame that the plan against Woo was to hit low line drives, playing off of his fastball well. O’Hearn was hitless in his last 15 at-bats before recording a base hit Tuesday. He said he’s tinkered with his swing slightly after feedback from the biomechanics department.
“It was just baseball,” O’Hearn said of the fourth-inning explosion. “It just feels like, you've heard hitting is contagious. I think that's true. Your boys go up there and hit some line drives, it just kind of flows from there. Like I always talk about, quality at-bats up and down the line. Makes it really fun.”
Rodríguez then hit a two-run double, Tyler Callihan added an RBI triple, Jake Mangum followed with an RBI single and Esmerlyn Valdez -- pinch-hitting for Spencer Horwitz, who was dealing with left hamstring discomfort -- capped the inning with an RBI single. The damage cost Woo 40 pitches and was enough to end his day.
Rodríguez has turned into the Pirates’ mainstay behind the plate. Pittsburgh shipped Joey Bart to Atlanta, and Henry Davis has moved to becoming exclusively used as Paul Skenes’ personal catcher. The 26-year-old Rodríguez has an .845 OPS in 28 games in 2026, fulfilling his potential at the plate.
As Ashcraft continued to cruise, the Pirates then added on with four more runs in the seventh and two in the eighth. The fourth-inning eruption was more than enough to return to the win column.
Maybe it was just in O’Hearn’s shoes – an ode to Michael Jordan and his famous 1989 commercial. Though the Pirates proved yet again that their offense can quickly awaken from a dormant sleep into a game-altering ball of fire.