Behind Jacob deGrom, Rangers pound 13 hits to top Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates faced a Cy Young Award-winning pitcher for the second consecutive day, but before Jacob deGrom even took the mound there were signs this was going to be a long night.

Josh Smith led off with a bloop single and scored when Sam Haggerty’s sharp grounder to center field skipped under the glove of Oneil Cruz for an error, and Mike Burrows followed by throwing a wild pitch.

The Texas Rangers took advantage of that mishap, solo home runs by Adolis Garcia and Corey Seager and a strong start from deGrom for a 6-2 win Friday night before 31,327 at PNC Park.

Pirates manager Don Kelly said he had a conversation with Cruz about his effort on the error and how he reacted when the ball got past him.

“He came in and missed it and, in that moment, nobody feels worse than Oneil does,” Kelly said. “We’re going to misplay balls, right? That’s going to happen. How do we react to it in the moment and then react after? We talked about it, him going after it if it goes by him. Sometimes you’re not going to get it, but you go.”

A day after losing the first game of a doubleheader at Detroit to 2024 AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, the Pirates had to face two-time Cy Young winner deGrom (7-2). The Rangers spotted deGrom the two-run lead, and he responded by shutting down the Pirates through the first three innings.

The 37-year-old right-hander allowed two runs on five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts over six innings, touching triple digits twice and throwing 62 of his 84 pitches for strikes.

“I thought we did a pretty good job against deGrom,” Kelly said. “To get down two early, then they get the third (run). We fight back, load the bases, have some really good at-bats there. You see the stuff that he’s got. He’s running it up to 100 and locating and throwing his offspeed off of that.”

Burrows (1-2) allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. The Rangers ambushed Burrows’ fastball early, and he responded by going to the changeup, leaving a couple up for big hits.

Where Burrows threw 25 pitches in the first inning, deGrom cruised through three hitless innings on the same number of pitches. He recorded three strikeouts and got a pair of shoestring catches by Garcia on line drives to right field.

Garcia led off the fourth inning by crushing a 2-1 changeup 418 feet to the left-field bleachers for his ninth home run and a 3-0 Rangers lead.

After retiring the first 11 batters he faced, deGrom gave up three consecutive hits in the fourth. Nick Gonzales singled to left with two outs, advanced to third base when Spencer Horwitz singled to left and scored on Joey Bart’s liner to left to cut it to 3-1.

Jared Triolo drew a full-count walk to load the bases for Adam Frazier, who looped a single to right to drive in Horwitz and make it a one-run game. But deGrom recovered to escape another bases-loaded jam by getting Alexander Canario to go down looking at a generous called third strike on a 99.2 mph four-seam fastball outside the zone.

“The first three innings we smoked some balls,” Kelly said. “Garcia made two great plays in the outfield, and Cutch crushed one at Seager, so it felt like we were having good at-bats and barreling some balls, got some guys on base. We came through later on. Just couldn’t get enough.”

Seager sent a 2-1 changeup 377 feet into the right-field stands for his seventh home run with one out in the fifth as the Rangers increased their lead to 4-2. Where Burrows was knocked out of the game, deGrom responded by striking out the side in the fifth.

“I think going through it is the learning process,” Burrows said. “You’re going to have outings like that. Not every single outing you’re going to come out and feel like you have everything that day. So just kind of going through it is the experience itself. I think maybe taking a couple more deep breaths and trying to focus on what I can control and getting the ball where I need to would be the lesson today.”

The Rangers threatened to score again in the sixth, when Jonah Heim doubled off the center-field wall to put runners on second and third. Josh Jung tried to score on a contact play, but Horwitz threw him out at home. Texas loaded the bases against Braxton Ashcraft, but he got Seager to fly out to left to escape unscathed.

The Pirates’ woes continued in the seventh, when Marcus Semien hit a fly ball to the North Side Notch. Canario and Cruz converged on the ball, bumping into each other. Canario slipped on the warning trick, flipping the ball to Cruz and allowing Semien to reach third on a triple. Garcia followed by blasting a 396-foot shot off the top of the center-field wall, where it was ruled fan interference for a double that scored Semien for a 5-2 Rangers lead.

Lefty Ryan Borucki loaded the bases with one out in the ninth by sandwiching a pair of walks around Ezequiel Duran’s double to right. Caleb Ferguson replaced Borucki, allowing Garcia to score from third on a groundout by Jung to give the Rangers a four-run edge.

Kelly said he didn’t want to make an example of Cruz, as he was more concerned with Cruz learning from the mishap than making mistakes. So he didn’t bench his slumping leadoff hitter.

“Oneil, the energy, the effort the rest of the game, to get down the line, I thought he made a good adjustment there and played hard the rest of the way, which is the expectation going forward,” Kelly said.

“Keeping him in the game, I think that all players deserve the opportunity to make the adjustments and have conversations like that. I feel like Oneil’s effort has been good recently in how he’s been playing, and I think we saw that the rest of the game in how he got after it and I think that he deserves a chance there in finding a way to make that adjustment as you go. If it continues like that then (it’s) something that we’re going to have to address in a different way. But I thought he handled it well the rest of the game and played hard and did the things he was supposed to.”