Jared Triolo continues tear with another big day at plate as Pirates beat Dodgers

Jared Triolo got the Pittsburgh Pirates started by belting a book-rule double over the North Side Notch off Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw to spark a four-run first inning.

Triolo gave the Pirates a cushion with a two-run double in the sixth, then drew a two-out walk, stole second base and scored an insurance run in the eighth to put the finishing touches on a 9-7 win Tuesday night before 14,330 at PNC Park.

“He’s having great at-bats. He’s playing great defense,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “The stolen base, he gets on late there and steals second, that was a huge run, being able to go up by three. He’s playing great baseball right now.”

After an amazing August that saw Triolo slash .315/.417/.467 with nine extra-base hits and eight RBIs, the Pirates shortstop continued his tear into September by going 2 for 4 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored against the Dodgers.

“We’ve only played one game in September so far, but today felt good,” Triolo said. “We put up nine runs. The offense feels pretty good right now.”

After Triolo hit a book-rule double that bounced over the North Side Notch, Nick Gonzales and Bryan Reynolds drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Tommy Pham hit a fly ball to right that dropped in on a sliding Teoscar Hernandez for a two-run double.

Andrew McCutchen lined a comebacker off Kershaw’s glove to drive in Reynolds for a 3-0 lead, and Pham scored on Alexander Canario’s sacrifice fly to right for a four-run advantage.

Where Kershaw labored through a 35-pitch inning, the Dodgers made Carmen Mlodzinski throw 38 in the second. Will Smith started by drawing a full-count walk to win a 12-pitch at-bat. Hernandez singled and Michael Conforto walked to load the bases, and Smith scored when Andy Pages grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Mlodzinski ended the frame by winning an 11-pitch battle with Alex Freeland, getting him swinging at a full-count changeup for a strikeout.

Kershaw needed only 32 pitches to retire nine of the next 10 batters. Mlodzinski, meantime, was replaced in the third by Bubba Chandler, the standout rookie right-hander who had six strikeouts and allowed three hits and one walk in eight scoreless innings in his first two major league appearances. Chandler got leadoff batter Miguel Rojas to ground out to third but faced his greatest test against three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani.

Chandler fell behind in a 2-0 count before getting Ohtani swinging at a 99-mph fastball. With a 3-1 count, Chandler threw a 99.2-mph heater that Ohtani lined 373 feet at a 120-mph exit velocity to clear the Clemente Wall for his 46th home run to cut it to 4-2.

“I was kind of wowed by it,” Chandler said. “I looked up at the board to see how hard it was hit. I came in here and the strength coach … I was, ‘Dang, that’s crazy to hit a ball that hard.’ He’s a great player, one of the best players to ever play.”

Chandler said he was trying to throw an elevated fastball past Ohtani. Instead, he missed on his location low and inside, right in Ohtani’s sweet spot.

“I was trying to go up with him, and I just threw it right where he wanted it and he made me regret it,” Chandler said. “The ball was hit pretty hard. I’m not going to complain about giving up that homer. The ones that are cheap … that one, I made a mistake and he exploited it. I can’t be too mad at myself.”

Chandler gave up singles to Mookie Betts, Smith and Hernandez, who drove in Freddie Freeman with a drive to right to make it 4-3, before getting Conforto swinging at a slider.

Pages opened the fourth by sending Chandler’s 1-0 fastball 418 feet to the Notch in left-center for his 24th homer to tie the game. After getting Rojas to ground out, Chandler won the rematch with Ohtani by flirting with triple digits: He fired a 99.9-mph fastball to get a groundout to short to end the frame.

“Ohtani hit the home run, but then the next at-bat, he goes back with a fastball right after him. It’s the mindset that he knows that he’s got, competing, challenging and not backing down,” Kelly said. “He continued to make pitches and adjust throughout. That’s something as a young major leaguer, learning how to do that in the middle of a game, he did a great job.”

When the Dodgers pulled Kershaw after five innings, the Pirates were quick to take advantage against flamethrowing righty Edgardo Henriquez. McCutchen and pinch hitter Oneil Cruz drew walks before Spencer Horwitz grounded into a forceout at second.

But Henry Davis, who was batting .054 (3 for 56) with runners in scoring position, went opposite field for a single to right to score McCutchen for a 5-4 lead. Blake Treinen came on in relief to strike out Cam Devanney, only for Triolo to smack a sweeper to the left-center gap for a two-run double to give the Pirates a 7-4 advantage.

“For (Davis) to come through with a huge hit to put us up there was really big,” Kelly said. “Hopefully it helps him relax a little bit and get back to being himself.”

The Dodgers answered in the seventh against Isaac Mattson. Rojas hit a leadoff single to left, raced to third on Ohtani’s double to left-center and scored when Betts hit a chopper to short to cut it to 7-5. But Freeman hit a comebacker to Mattson that froze Ohtani between third and home plate and Devanney chased him down to tag him out before he could score.

Moments after Kelly argued what he believed was a foul tip but was a called a ball by home plate umpire Nic Lentz — who once ejected the Pirates’ manager, bench coach and pitching coach in the sixth inning of a 6-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 13, 2023 — Will Smith smacked a 2-2 pitch to center to drive in Freeman to cut it to 7-6.

“I thought our pitchers made some good pitches,” Triolo said. “They just have some boppers on their team, so sometimes you have to tip your cap.”

The Pirates responded by increasing their lead with some small ball. Pham singled, advanced to second on McCutchen’s walk, to third on a wild pitch by lefty Anthony Banda and scored when Cruz hit a dribbler to short for a two-run edge.

Triolo did more damage in the eighth when he drew a two-out walk, stole second base and scored on a single to center by Gonzales to give the Pirates a 9-6 lead.

Rojas drew a leadoff walk off Dennis Santana to start the ninth and Ohtani followed by driving an RBI double off the bullpen fence to score pinch runner Hyesong Kim to cut it to 9-7.

“It was just a back-and-forth game,” Triolo said. “Coming out on top feels really good.”