Bryan Reynolds homer caps Pirates' 6-run, come-from-behind win over Tigers

Wednesday afternoon before his struggling team’s game, manager Clint Hurdle discussed what Trevor Williams’ return meant for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It wasn’t just Williams’ pitching ability the Pirates so desperately needed, Hurdle said. They also would benefit from a much-harder-to-define intangible.

Williams’ contagious competitiveness shined through Wednesday in his outing, and his teammates followed suit.

Starling Marte and Bryan Reynolds homered to lead a comeback from down six runs in what ended up a 8-7 Pirates win against the Detroit Tigers.

It was the Pirates’ biggest comeback win in almost 11 years — Jason Bay led them back from down six to the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth inning on July 11, 2008.

“There’s a lot of times that we… are down (big) and we will say, ‘What a game this will be when we come back and win it,’ ” Hurdle said. “Tonight was a game that we came back and won it.”

In his first start in more than a month because of a right-side strain, Williams was tagged for five extra-base hits and seven runs before he had retired seven men Wednesday. But after a disastrous third-inning stretch of four extra-base hits and a Williams throwing error among a 10-pitch span that put the Pirates down 7-1, Williams retired the final nine batters he faced to give the Pirates a chance.

“He stays focused. He stays locked in. There’s no quit. There’s no backing off,” Hurdle said of Williams. “There’s a lot of times he gets out there and says, ‘I made this mess, I have got to clean it up.’ No, ‘I made a mess, I’ll hand it off to somebody else.’

“There was a ‘7’ up there after three — and it stayed ‘7’ all the way through, and he was a big factor in it.”

Williams’ response to homers by Brandon Dixon and Harold Castro that came on back-to-back pitches? Striking out the side on 12 pitches, like the competitor his manager praises him for being. In all, he retired each of the final nine he faced, and it only took 28 pitches to do it.

“To watch Trevor battle, it makes you wanna battle at the plate,” outfielder Corey Dickerson said. “You kind of feed off of it.”

The Pirates’ starting outfielders Wednesday seized the opportunity Williams gave them for a comeback: Dickerson, Marte and Reynolds combined for seven RBIs and six runs over the next four innings.

Dickerson’s double to right in the third scored Reynolds and Marte, and Marte hit his 11th home run two innings later on the pitch after Reynolds singled. That reduced the deficit to 7-5 until Reynolds came up with Adam Frazier at third and Kevin Newman at second with one out in the sixth.

Reynolds turned on a 2-1 curveball from Nick Ramirez, sending it 421 feet into the bleachers beyond the left-center-field gap.

“His right-handed swing is strong,” Hurdle said. “It’s been strong all year.”

It was Reynolds’ sixth home run of the season, one of three hits in four at-bats that raised the rookie’s season average to .362. When the game ended, that was not only the best average among MLB rookies, it was the second best among all major league players since his April 20 debut.

“What Bryan Reynolds is doing right now is extremely impressive,” Williams said, “and I hope a lot more eyes are being opened to who he is … I hope he starts getting the attention he deserves.”

Reynolds has gone on two hitting streaks of at least 11 games. Newman, a fellow rookie, extended his hitting streak to 11 games Wednesday, also his second of at least that length this season.

Colin Moran added two hits for a Pirates lineup that got a hit from everyone except for MVP candidate Josh Bell. That includes Williams, who had an RBI single in the second inning.

Relievers Richard Rodriguez, Francisco Liriano and Felipe Vazquez combined for four scoreless innings.

The win was just the Pirates’ third in their past 12 games and ninth over their past 29. But could it be a significant one?

“I think tonight is going to be a turning point for us as a ballclub,” Williams said.

”I think it’s gonna start coming together, and I think it’s gonna start on Friday night against the Padres.”

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