Andrew McCutchen, Jared Triolo hit 2-run homers as Pirates beat Rockies

That Jared Triolo was batting leadoff with a batting average below .200 might have seemed counterintuitive if not for how he’s been hitting this month since returning from the minor leagues.

Triolo hammered a two-run homer in the third inning, then tripled off the center-field wall and scored again in the fifth. Suddenly, it seemed Triolo had a chance to hit for the cycle.

“I wish,” Triolo said. “I got the two hardest ones out of the way. But that would’ve been cool.”

Triolo and Andrew McCutchen both hit two-run homers as the Pittsburgh Pirates rolled to a 5-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night before 22,588 at PNC Park.

“That’s always our plan: to score early and get them out of it,” Triolo said. “We did that today.”

Since being recalled Aug. 1 after the trade deadline passed, Triolo is batting .303/.395/.439 with four doubles, a triple, a homer and five RBIs in 20 games. He entered the game with a .199 batting average but went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, boosting it above the Mendoza Line (.205) for the first time this season.

“Man, he’s swinging the bat great, barreling balls,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “Honestly, his swing throughout the year, he didn’t have the results to show for it. I know he wished the results were there, but we’re starting to see that. Driving the ball too, the homer and off the center-field wall, and you always know you’re going to get great defense out of him.”

When the Pirates visited Coors Field at the start of August, they couldn’t stop the Rockies from scoring — giving up 30 runs in three games, including a 17-16 loss — but their series at PNC Park has been the polar opposite. Kelly said the Pirates had “some good learning opportunities” at Coors Field, especially for several young pitchers.

“Getting back to doing what they do back home at PNC,” Kelly said, “and have thrown the ball extremely well.”

The Pirates were one out away from recording a second consecutive shutout against the Rockies before Brenton Doyle hit a solo home run off Yohan Ramirez in the ninth inning.

Doyle’s homer ended a 26-inning streak of holding opponents scoreless. It was the first run the Pirates allowed since George Springer’s leadoff home run in a 2-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

After rookie right-handers Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler combined for a shutout in a 9-0 win Friday night, the Pirates got a strong pitching performance from another as Mike Burrows recorded five strikeouts while allowing two hits and one walk in four innings.

The bullpen took it from there as Carmen Mlodzinski struck out five, including the side in the sixth, in two scoreless frames and Kyle Nicolas, Colin Holderman held the Rockies without a run through eight innings.

“That’s the foundation for us,” Kelly said. “They’ve been so good all year. In baseball, you know you’re going to have your blips, but they’ve been so good and giving us the chance to win so many games. Have shown that over the last three games.”

The Pirates hammered Rockies starter Kyle Freeland, scoring five runs on seven hits and three walks with six strikeouts in five innings. After Tommy Pham hit a leadoff single, McCutchen crushed Freeland’s full-count fastball at the bottom of the strike zone for a 391-foot shot down the left-field line for his 12th home run to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

“He killed that ball,” Kelly said of McCutchen, who had a pair of two-run doubles Friday night. “It was way back. Last couple days, really swung the bat well and giving us some big jolts early in the game. The doubles yesterday and the big two-run home run today.”

The Pirates followed the same blueprint in the second inning, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled to left and Triolo followed by driving a 1-1 fastball 404 feet to left field for his fourth homer and a 4-0 lead.

Triolo led off the fifth inning with a triple to center, then scored on Bryan Reynolds’ double off the right-center wall to stretch the lead to 5-0.

Ramirez relieved Holderman in the ninth and got a strikeout and a flyout before Doyle sent an 0-2 fastball 412 feet to left-center for his 14th home run to spoil the shutout bid. Even so, the Pirates enjoyed being on the other end of the high-scoring games.

“Scored one run in 18 innings,” Burrows said. “That’s pretty good.”