Jason Delay's beneficial bounce for an RBI double leads Pirates past Yankees for 70th win

The New York Yankees stretched their streak of retiring Pittsburgh Pirates batters to 27 consecutive when Jared Triolo hit a leadoff double off the wall in right-center field in the third inning.

When Triolo hit another double in the seventh — doubling his season total — it put him in position to take advantage of a beneficial bounce.

Jason Delay hit a grounder that ricocheted off the bag at third base for a double to drive in Triolo for the go-ahead run as the Pirates beat the Yankees, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon before 29,565 at PNC Park.

“Shout out to the bigger bases,” said Delay, who fouled off three pitches by Yankees lefty Carlos Rodon. “I don’t know, just finding a way, I guess. Grinding an at-bat away. Obviously, he’s got power stuff. It’s not easy. So I was just fouling stuff off until he gave me a pitch to hit and was fortunate enough that it nicked that bag and scored a run.”

The Pirates (70-80) reached the 70-win mark for the first time since 2018 and avoided a series sweep by the Yankees (76-74), who followed a four-run ninth in Friday’s 7-5 win with a 6-3 win Saturday. The Pirates are 29-26 over their last 55 games, a .527 winning percentage.

“I think bouncing back like that definitely gives us confidence going forward,” said Triolo, one of five rookies in the starting lineup. “Just knowing that we were able to have a tough game like that and be able to come back and salvage this last game of the series was great for us.”

The Pirates have the back end of their bullpen to thank.

Rookie right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski retired the top of the Yankees’ order in the eighth, including a three-pitch strikeout of 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge, to set up All-Star closer David Bednar for a scoreless ninth and his 36th save.

Bednar struck out Giancarlo Stanton on three pitches before Austin Wells doubled off the bullpen fence in left-center. Bednar went back into attack mode to strike out Anthony Volpe on a full-count fastball and get Oswald Peraza to chase a curveball outside for a strikeout to end the game.

“I know he gave up the double,” Shelton said, “but it’s as sharp as he’s been probably in the last two or three weeks.”

Rodon had 10 strikeouts without a walk in allowing three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. He pitched a pair of clean innings to start after the Yankees had retired the final 21 batters in Saturday’s game.

“Carlos had good stuff and was executing,” Shelton said. “The slider was a cutter at times, and then was a slider at times. So, I was really pleased with how we continue to grind.”

Then Triolo hit a 377-foot leadoff double off the wall in right-center and scored on Liover Peguero’s two-out single to center to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

“I mean, (that’s) a homer probably in 25 ballparks,” Shelton said. “Our ballpark gets really big out in that area. … I think the biggest thing is that he’s a baseball player, regardless of where you put him, situation you put him in. The moment doesn’t get too big for him.”

Rodon recorded his 1,000th career strikeout by getting Ke’Bryan Hayes swinging on a 96 mph four-seam fastball. Two pitches later, Miguel Andujar drove a 96.3 mph four-seamer 370 feet off the right-field foul pole for his fourth home run and a 2-0 Pirates lead.

“He takes aggressive swings,” Shelton said. “You don’t see a right-handed hitter hit the foul pole very much on the right-field side. I mean, that ball stayed true.”

For Andujar, the homer had special meaning given he spent his first six seasons with the Yankees before the Pirates claimed him off waivers last September.

“It’s a blessing to do that,” Andujar said, “and help the team win, too.”

Opener Colin Selby and bulk reliever Andre Jackson kept the Yankees hitless through the first five innings before Estevan Florial led off the sixth with a single to center. DJ LeMahieu doubled down the left-field line to score Florial and cut it to 2-1.

The Pirates put runners on the corners with two outs in the sixth. Connor Joe singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and took third when Yankees rookie shortstop Volpe made an error on a sharp grounder by Andujar. But Rodon struck out Jack Suwinski to escape unscathed.

Volpe quickly made up for his mistake by sending Jackson’s 2-2 slider 417 feet to center for his 21st homer to tie the score 2-2 in the seventh. After Jackson walked Peraza, the Pirates brought in lefty Ryan Borucki, who struck out Oswaldo Cabrera and got pinch hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground into a forceout.

Triolo doubled again, this time to the North Side Notch, to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Delay followed with an RBI double to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.

“It was awesome,” Triolo said. “Getting out on the field and contributing to the win, especially in a close ballgame, was really good.”

The Pirates begin a 10-day, nine-game road trip Tuesday with three games each at the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies before returning home to finish against the Miami Marlins.

The three-game weekend series with the Yankees drew a total of 93,021 — more than twice than the combined attendance of 39,878 for the four-game series against the Washington Nationals in the same homestand — and provided a rare, lively late-season atmosphere at PNC Park.

“That was the message Shelty had for us after the game: That’s a playoff environment right there,” Delay said. “That’s a situation that we want to be in moving forward. Obviously, we have a lot really young (players), a lot of rookies in this clubhouse. For them to get that exposure and get that experience it’s going to go a long way next year.”