Pirates split with Tigers off 7-2 victory in nightcap

Daniel Vogelbach hit his team-leading fourth homerun and Jose Quintana pitched another solid outing to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-2 victory in their Wednesday nightcap to earn a split with the Detroit Tigers following a 3-2 loss in the afternoon game.

Vogelbach also doubled and hit a sacrifice fly, and he finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs on the night.

In addition, Ben Gamel went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI single, and Bryan Reynolds went 2-for-5 to raise his average to .217 after hitting below the Mendoza Line for much of the start of the year. Hopefully, he’s about to heat up.

On the mound, Quintana went five innings (big surprise), giving up two runs on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts. But Zach Thompson, who was pitching out of the bullpen for the first time this season, took home the win for one scoreless inning, to grab his first W of the year. He’s now 1-3 and perhaps he can follow the lead of some other failed Bucs starters in Wil Crowe and Dillon Peters and find some new life out of the pen.

David Bednar worked the last two innings, striking out three and giving up just one hit for his third save of the year, and he lowered his ERA to 0.77 in the process.

The Bucs will be back in action on Friday against Cincy out in Ohio.