PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped the opener of their three-game set against the Detroit Tigers, then responded the way a team fighting for relevance in August is supposed to: they got better, they got louder, and they refused to lose. Two nights later they walked off the visitors 4-3 on a pair of ninth-inning home runs, taking the series two games to one and finishing a 4-2 homestand.
The finale on Wednesday afternoon at PNC Park was the signature moment. Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth against veteran closer Kenley Jansen, Rafael Flores Jr. launched a one-out solo shot to left (431 feet) to tie the game. Two batters later Brandon Lowe crushed a 1-2 cutter that clanged high off the right-field foul pole for the walk-off winner. It was Lowe’s 27th homer of the season — the most by a Pirates second baseman in club history — and the 83rd Pittsburgh home run at PNC Park this year, a venue record since the park opened in 2001.
Flores had already gone deep once, a pinch-hit 422-foot blast in the seventh that cut the deficit to one. He became the first Pirate ever to hit two home runs in a game he did not start. Mason Montgomery retired the Tigers in the top of the ninth for the win.
Game 1: Tigers 8, Pirates 5 (Monday)
Detroit jumped on Carmen Mlodzinski early. Kevin McGonigle’s two-run homer in the second made it 4-0, and the Tigers piled up 14 hits. Pittsburgh answered with a four-run sixth, highlighted by Nick Yorke’s three-RBI double, but could not close the gap. Framber Valdez earned the win. The loss dropped the Pirates to 61-66.
Game 2: Pirates 4, Tigers 1 (Tuesday)
Braxton Ashcraft was brilliant, throwing eight efficient innings (80 pitches, five hits, one walk, four strikeouts) in his second straight strong outing. Oneil Cruz, activated after 72 days on the injured list with a fractured left hand, made an immediate impact. In the fifth he turned on a knuckle-curve and sent it 422 feet to right-center for his 15th homer of the year — his first since June 2. Spencer Horwitz and Bryan Reynolds added RBI singles. The Pirates had now won four of six.
Cruz followed that up Wednesday with an RBI single in the first inning that gave Pittsburgh an early 1-0 lead, showing the same explosiveness that defined his first two seasons. His return injects both power and presence into a lineup that has leaned on the long ball throughout the homestand.
Series snapshot and the power surge
Pirates homers: Cruz (Tue), Flores twice + Lowe walk-off (Wed).
Pirates went 4-2 on the six-game homestand vs. Boston and Detroit.
Lowe now owns the Pirates’ single-season second-base home-run record.
PNC Park home-run mark (83) is the highest in the ballpark’s 25-year history.
Paul Skenes lasted only 4⅓ innings Wednesday (three runs, four walks), the sixth time this year he has failed to reach five innings, but the bullpen and the bats bailed him out.
The Tigers (61-66) have now lost five of six. Pittsburgh sits at 63-66, still on the fringe of the NL wild-card picture, but the last two nights showed something more important than the standings: this club can still fight, still hit the ball over the wall, and still find ways to win late. The ninth-inning explosion against Jansen was the loudest evidence yet. The Bucs are now just 5.5 back for the final NL Wildcard spot.