Bo Bichette's 3-run double leads Blue Jays past Pirates in Hall of Fame game

On the night the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated their history by inducting their inaugural hall of fame class, it was the Toronto Blue Jays who brought PNC Park alive with cheers.

The chants of “Let’s go Blue Jays!” grew louder with the bases loaded in the seventh inning when Bo Bichette became the fourth consecutive batter to work Duane Underwood Jr. to a full count.

The pro-Toronto crowd went wild when Bichette smacked Underwood’s 37th pitch of the inning for a bases-clearing double to left field, breaking a tie and lifting the Blue Jays to a 4-1 win over the Pirates on Saturday night before 23,568 at PNC Park. It was the Pirates’ third consecutive loss and fourth in five games.

The Pirates got a quality start from rookie right-hander Roansy Contreras, who gave up one run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts on 92 pitches in six innings. In his previous start, a 5-0 win over Philadelphia on Aug. 28, Contreras pitched five scoreless innings.

“These last two starts he’s had to navigate through some traffic, and he’s done a really good job,” Shelton said. “He’s done a really good job of executing and using his pitches. He used all three of them again. He was extremely effective. That’s a good lineup. They make you grind. We saw it (Friday) night, and we saw it (Saturday): They foul off a ton of pitches.”

The Pirates managed only one run against seven Blue Jays pitchers in a bullpen game started by Trevor Richards, one night after Alek Manoah pitched 7 1/3 innings in a 4-0 win over the Pirates.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead when Oneil Cruz hit Yusei Kikuchi’s 1-2 slider 355 feet off the center-field wall for a triple to score Jason Delay in the third inning.

Problem was, the Pirates couldn’t score again. Kikuchi struck out Kevin Newman, then Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made a diving stop to get Bryan Reynolds out and leave Cruz stranded.

The Blue Jays tied it in the fourth, when Bichette singled on a flare to left, reached third on a double by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and scored on Raimel Tapia’s groundout to third to make it 1-1.

Toronto threatened to score in the fifth, when George Springer was hit by a pitch and Teoscar Hernandez reached on a throwing error by Cruz at short to put runners on first and third. Contreras struck out Matt Chapman on a slider and got Bichette to fly out to center.

Contreras had two runners on base in four innings but didn’t succumb to Toronto’s talented batting order.

“From the beginning, I try not to focus too much on the lineup and the caliber of lineup they are,” Contreras said through translator Mike Gonzalez. “I do respect and recognize it, but I just try to go out there, trying to execute pitches and make sure that I’m attacking the zone and sticking to the plan.”

The Pirates got a leadoff single from Josh VanMeter, and Delay drew a walk to start the bottom of the fifth before Kikuchi got Cruz looking at a called third strike and Newman grounded into a double play.

After Springer got it started with a single to left, Guerrero drew a full-count walk. Underwood struck out Hernandez for the second out but walked Chapman to load the bases for Bichette, who battled through a 10-pitch at-bat.

Bichette fouled off six pitches before connecting on a cutter to give the Blue Jays the go-ahead runs.

Shelton never considered making a pitching change.

“That’s his lane,” Shelton said of Underwood. “We’ve got to avoid the two walks. He’s got to execute pitches. The Bichette at-bat was a heck of an at-bat by Bichette, but Duane’s just got to execute pitches.”

Cruz singled in the eighth, then raced to third on a single to right by Reynolds and slid in safe at third base. Toronto challenged the call, asserting Cruz came off the bag and was tagged out by Chapman. After review, the call stood and the Pirates had runners on first and third with two outs. The Blue Jays brought in lefty reliever Tim Mayza to face lefty slugger Jack Suwinski, who went down swinging at a sinker.

Jordan Romano retired the Pirates in order in the ninth for his 29th save, leaving Shelton frustrated with the lack of run production.

“We hit some balls hard. We just didn’t get any balls to fall,” Shelton said. “It’s a tough thing to navigate when you’re able to matchup the whole time through, and you have a fresh bullpen because of the fact that Manoah was so strong last night.”