Pirates drop Dodgers 6-5 in wild game

David Bednar blew his first save of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but some clutch performances by several Buccos and an error by the Los Angeles Dodgers got him the win instead as the Pirates were winning early, blew the lead, got it back, and then almost lost it again in a 6-5 late night victory over the Dodgers.

The Pirates have played very well against L.A. this year, and they bounced out to an early lead in the second on a three-run shot by Tucupito Marcano, the first of his career.

The Pirates then got another in the third on a Bryan Reynolds solo shot. It was his seventh of the year and Reynolds could be primed to get hot after a slow start to the season.

The Dodgers chipped away at the 4-0 Pittsburgh lead when Hanser Alberto and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back solo homers off of Zach Thompson, then made it 4-3 Pittsburgh with a solo homer in the sixth by Edwin Rios off of Dillon Peters.

But on came David Bednar in the eighth looking for his league-leading fourth six-out save, and it just didn’t happen, as a Justin Turner double tied the game to blow the save and then the Dodgers scored another on a Chris Taylor knock to center, threatening to hand Bednar the loss.

But the Bucs rallied in the top the ninth after Diego Castillo walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Craig Kimbrell. Michael Perez hit a ball to right, and Castillo made it all the way in from second despite the rocket throw from Betts.

Perez advanced to second on the throw but Michael Chavis came in to run, and a Freddie Freeman error on a ground ball by Cal Mitchell had Chavis sprinting successfully for the plate and the Buccos were back in front.

Bednar then looked tenuous again, giving up a double to Betts and then walking Freeman to put two men on, but he got the outs and snagged the win for the Buccos, striking out Will Smith to end the game.

Bednar got the win to go to 2-1 on the season despite giving up two runs on four hits in two innings. He struck out four. Starter Zach Thompson went five and two-thirds, giving up two runs on four hits while also striking out four.

Ke’Bryan Hayes went 3-for-5 at the plate as the only multi-hit Bucco, with the homers by Reynolds and Marcano the big offensive output for the day.

The Bucs look to continue their run of success versus the Dodgers again tonight at 10:10pm.