Josh Bell homers twice as Pirates overpower Padres
SAN DIEGO — Josh Bell homered twice and drove in four, rookie Bryan Reynolds connected for the second straight night and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2, on Saturday.
Padres rookie left-hander Nick Margevicius (2-5) allowed four homers in four-plus innings.
Bell has three career multihomer games, all in his last 14 games. He also had two homers against Oakland on May 4 and at Arizona on Tuesday. He has 14 homers this season after hitting 12 last year.
The switch-hitter homered to left leading off the second, followed by Reynolds’ shot, also to left. Bell homered to left-center with one out in the third, with Adam Frazier aboard on a single and Starling Marte on a double.
Reynolds has three homers, including one in Friday night’s 5-3 victory.
Gregory Polanco lined a homer to right leading off the fifth, his fourth, to chase Margevicius.
Bell and Elias Diaz had three hits each.
The Pirates used an opener for the first time, with rookie righty Montana DuRapau holding San Diego to one hit in two scoreless innings while striking out four and walking one. He was making his first big league start and fifth appearance. He was a 32nd-round selection — the 971st pick overall — in the 2014 draft and made his major league debut May 9.
After allowing Hunter Renfroe’s single to open the second, DuRapau struck out rookie Ty France, Wil Myers and Austin Hedges.
Steven Brault (1-1), who played at Grossmont High in suburban El Cajon, replaced DuRapau and allowed two runs and four hits in 31⁄3 innings.
Brault allowed RBI singles by Manny Machado in the third and rookie Austin Allen in the sixth. It was Allen’s first big league RBI.
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