Tyler Callihan was already riding high entering his pivotal at-bat in the bottom of the eighth. A few innings earlier, Callihan blasted his first MLB home run out of PNC Park -- off starter Shohei Ohtani no less -- as it bounced into the Allegheny River. Coming up to the plate with runners on first and second and the Pirates trailing the Dodgers by two, Callihan blasted a three-run shot to flip the game on its head. Pittsburgh held on for a 9-8 win, snapping a four-game skid. Callihan was in a clear spot to bunt over the two runners and put the tying run in scoring position. Third-base coach Tony Beasley, however, let the hot-hitting Callihan swing away. He did just that on the first pitch from Los Angeles reliever Kyle Hurt. It was a changeup in the heart of the zone, and Callihan didn’t miss it. “If you throw the ball over the plate and I think I'm on time to hit it, I'm going to swing,” Callihan said. Callihan is the 13th player in Pirates history to hit his first two career home runs in the same game. He was the first since Ryan Doumit in 2005. Callihan wasn’t able to retrieve his first home run ball. It’s likely still swimming through the Allegheny River. Though he did acquire the second, and he has an encased baseball from his outing on the mound Tuesday night in a blowout loss. It was quite fitting for Callihan to turn into a two-way star, especially with Ohtani on the other side. The Pirates’ offense had struggled across the past four games. Pittsburgh, which entered with the sixth most runs scored in the Majors, scored just 2.75 per game in the previous four. Facing Ohtani made things more difficult. With Oneil Cruz landing on the injured list on Wednesday with fourth and fifth-metacarpal non-displaced fractures in his left hand, the task only grew.
