Pirates belt five homers, bury Phillies
PHILADELPHIA -- On their way out of town, the Pittsburgh Pirates left Citizens Bank Park multiple times.
The Pirates crushed five home runs and put up an eight-run rally in the ninth inning as they picked up a 15-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, salvaging a split in a four-game series.
Pittsburgh's first seven runs all came from homers. The Pirates' eight runs in the ninth inning all came with two outs.
Nine of the Pirates' 13 hits went for extra bases. Two of the home runs were off the bat of Andrew McCutchen, and Jordy Mercer's three-run blast in the seventh inning broke open what had been a one-run Pittsburgh lead before the Pirates made it a laugher in the ninth.
Thursday marked the fifth time this season the Phillies allowed five home runs. Things got worse in the ninth inning off the bullpen combination of Severino Gonzalez and Colton Murray.
Eleven of the Pirates' 13 hits on the night produced at least one run. Pittsburgh went 7-for-11 with runners in scoring positon and stranded just one runner on base in the entire game.
On the mound for Pittsburgh, Chad Kuhl -- a Middletown, Del., native -- was pitching in front of about 100 friends in family. They saw one of the best major league starts of the 24-year-old's young career.
Kuhl (4-3) retired the first 12 batters he faced, and the righty struck out the side in the fourth inning. He needed just 44 pitches to get through the first four frames.
The rookie ran into some trouble in the fifth after Cameron Rupp led off with a double. Rupp scored on an RBI groundout, and Aaron Altherr also drove in a run in the frame with a two-out double.
Kuhl wound up throwing six innings, allowing two runs on four this. He struck out five and issued no walks. The Pirates skipped Kuhl's last turn in the rotation and he was pulled after 68 pitches in a Sept. 5 outing against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff actually went longer than Kuhl without pitching from the stretch. But that was because the first three hits the Pirates had were all solo homers.
John Jaso got the Pirates' long-ball barrage started right away, as he rocketed his third leadoff homer of the season to deep right-center field. McCutchen made it 2-0 in the fourth inning, and Sean Rodriguez lifted a ball over the fence to start the fifth.
Besides the homers, Eickhoff did not allow a runner on base until the seventh inning. Gregory Polanco led off that frame with a double, but it looked as though Eickhoff was going to get out through the inning without further damage after two quick outs.
Francisco Cervelli then reached on an error by third baseman Maikel Franco, and Mercer put the game out of reach with a three-run bomb. Mercer was the last batter Eickhoff faced.
McCutchen got his second homer of the night off Phillies reliever Frank Herrmann. It was McCutchen's third multi-homer game and the 12th of his career.
Eickhoff (10-14) gave up six runs (three earned) on five hits in 6 2/3 innings.
In the ninth, Pittsburgh had six separate two-out, run-scoring hits, one each from pinch hitter Josh Bell, David Freese, McCutchen, Polanco, Jung Ho Kang and Rodriguez.
NOTES: The Phillies announced they acquired OF Joey Curletta on Thursday as part of the Carlos Ruiz trade with the Dodgers. Curletta, 22, spent most of 2016 in Class High-A and also spent 29 games in Double-A. In 106 games in 2016, he had a slash line of .251/.323/.463 and had 17 homers and 67 RBIs. ...The Phillies fired Triple-A manager Dave Brundage on Thursday, according to the Allentown Morning Call. Brundage led the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to a playoff appearance this season, and he went 286-292 in four seasons. Double-A manager Dusty Wathan was promoted to take Brundage's place, according to MLB.com. ...Relievers Zach Phillips and Wade LeBlanc made their Pirates debuts Wednesday night. A total of 54 players have now appeared this season for Pittsburgh, a franchise record.