Detroit Tigers at Pittsburgh Pirates

PITTSBURGH – All Brandon Lowe could do was pray and watch. The veteran second baseman belted a fly ball to deep right field in the bottom of the ninth, with the game tied and likely future Hall of Fame closer Kenley Jansen on the mound. As the ball floated down the right-field line, the spin nearly took it foul. Then, it doinked off the foul pole. Ballgame. “I think the wind pushed it back over a little bit for me,” Lowe joked. The Pirates suddenly caught fire in the bottom of the ninth as Rafael Flores Jr. and Lowe each blasted solo homers to turn a one-run loss into a 4-3 walk-off win over the Tigers on Wednesday at PNC Park. It was the first time Pittsburgh hit the game-tying and game-winning homer in the same frame (ninth inning or later) since May 2, 2014, when Pedro Álvarez and Starling Marte did the honors. The victory clinched a second straight series win for the Pirates as they continue to push on the outside looking in of the NL Wild Card picture. “That was a Cinderella story,” Flores Jr. said postgame. “Tie game, homer walk-off. That’s what you dream of as a little kid.” Jackson Jobe outdueled Paul Skenes through 5 1/3 innings as the Tigers built a 3-1 lead with station-to-station baseball on Skenes as he was searching for command. Pittsburgh rallied back into the game with Flores Jr.’s first solo shot in the seventh, which came as a pinch-hitter. The Pirates' top bullpen arms, including Camilo Doval, Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery, all held the deficit at one. Flores Jr. didn’t enter the game until the bottom of the seventh inning. Two innings later, he had two no-doubt home runs under his belt.