Multiple rallies not enough for Pirates, who drop series opener to Arizona

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton could probably find quite a bit to be pleased with in his club’s series opener Friday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Pirates scored six runs with two outs, Oneil Cruz battled back from another costly fielding error to record his first career five-hit game and Luis Ortiz hung in after a disastrous first inning.

However, all the positives didn’t translate to a win, as the Pirates fell 9-8 in front of 22,834 fans at PNC Park in a game full of lead changes.

“It’s always a good sign that our team is fighting back,” Cruz said postgame through assistant coach and translator Stephen Morales. “That’s a sign of a playoff team. Hopefully, we’ll be there at some point.”

Colin Holderman (3-3, 2.48 ERA) took the loss for the second straight game, allowing the decisive run in the bottom of the eighth.

The Diamondbacks jumped on Ortiz early, scoring five runs in the top of the first, including three straight homers by Ketel Marte, Joc Pederson and Josh Bell.

Marte and Bell homered again before the night ended, with Arizona (59-51) hitting five home runs against the fellow National League wild-card hopeful Pirates (55-54).

Corbin Carroll’s leadoff triple in the first, on which he managed to score due to Cruz’s throwing error — with Ke’Bryan Hayes’ lackadaisical recovery of the ball and Ortiz’s failure to back up third base also playing a role — set the tone for the remainder of the frame.

But Ortiz rallied himself, allowing no additional hits until the sixth, with his night ending in an eventual no-decision after 5¹⁄₃ innings.

“First inning, my mindset was attacking the strike zone,” Ortiz said through Morales. “Obviously, as a starting pitcher, you don’t want to use all your pitches in the first inning, just to save something for later. But then, they put really good swings on the pitches that I was throwing. After that, I said that I have to start throwing all my pitches to move on into the game.”

Meanwhile, the Pirates chipped away at their deficit in the fourth and fifth.

Joey Bart’s RBI single in the fourth scored Cruz, who also singled and got to third on productive groundouts by Bryan De La Cruz and Rowdy Tellez, made it 5-1.

In the fifth, Andrew McCutchen hit a two-out double off Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt, with Reynolds doubling him home and Cruz then plating Reynolds.

That made it 5-3, but the Diamondbacks added another run in the top of the sixth after chasing Ortiz, with Jalen Beeks letting up one on Alek Thomas’ RBI hit.

The momentum pendulum swung in the Pirates’ favor in the sixth, as they scored four runs to take their first lead of the game, 7-6.

With Arizona reliever Kevin Ginkel on the mound, Bart drew a walk, Hayes singled and Jared Triolo was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Michael A. Taylor then scored Bart with a grounder to shortstop, with Geraldo Perdomo narrowly beating the sliding Triolo at second.

From there, the Diamondbacks opted to insert A.J. Puk, but he quickly allowed an RBI single to McCutchen, with another Reynolds RBI hit tying the score at 6-6.

That brought Cruz to the plate again, and he deposited a ball past Marte at second.

Third-base coach Mike Rabelo waved McCutchen home, and initially, Marte’s throw from shallow right field was ruled by umpire Ramon De Jesus to have been in time.

But upon a Pirates challenge, McCutchen, who dove head first, was ruled safe, putting the Pirates up 7-6.

The Pirates’ lead was short-lived, though, as in the top of the seventh, Bell homered for the second time, connecting on an 0-2 103 mph sinker from Aroldis Chapman, tying the score again.

“It’s hard to critique a 103 mph fastball on the black,” Shelton said. “Josh put a good swing on it, and it ended up getting a homer.”

In the eighth, fresh off a rough July 31 outing in Houston, Holderman took the mound and was shaky, allowing a single to Gabriel Moreno, who stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Soon thereafter, Perdomo made it 8-7 with an RBI double.

The Pirates had one more run/rally in them in the bottom of the ninth, with Tellez hitting an RBI single to score Cruz, who got aboard with his fifth hit of the night before stealing second base.

But in the inning’s top frame, Arizona managed their ninth run of the evening when Marte hit his 26th homer of the year off Dennis Santana.

“(These) games are important,” Shelton said. “That’s why I was proud of our group for continuing to battle back. We’ve just got to finish that game.”

In addition to Cruz’s 5-for-5 night, Reynolds went 2 for 5 with two RBIs and McCutchen was 2 for 4 with an RBI.

Ortiz allowed six runs on six hits with three walks, two strikeouts and three homers allowed.

Chapman was charged with a blown save in the defeat.