Pirates top Padres, win first series in a month

For the first time in a month, the Pittsburgh Pirates are winners of a series.

By defeating San Diego, 3-2, on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park, the Pirates took two of three games. Their last series win also came against the Padres: a home sweep June 27-29.

Johan Oviedo (4-11, 4.60 ERA) delivered a quality start of six innings, allowing one run and picking up his first win since May 19. Solo homers by Ji Man Choi, Bryan Reynolds and Carlos Santana provided the offense to elevate the Pirates (45-57).

But the victory didn’t come without some major scares.

With the Pirates leading 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth and Colin Holderman pitching, Fernando Tatis Jr. missed a tying home run by inches. Instead, he flew out to Jack Suwinski, who had his back against the wall in deep center field.

Santana’s home run in the top of the ninth seemed to hand the Pirates a key insurance run, but All-Star closer David Bednar ran into trouble that far eclipsed Holderman’s frightful moment.

In the end, Bednar recovered and picked up his 20th save of the year, a career high, but not before loading the bases on a walk to Xander Bogaerts, a single to Luis Campusano and by hitting Jake Cronenworth with a curveball in the dirt.

With one out and the bases loaded, the Padres inserted pinch-hitter Juan Soto, whom Bednar walked on four pitches, scoring Bogaerts to make it 3-2.

But Bednar managed to escape the jam, as Taylor Kohlwey popped out and Trent Grisham, despite fouling off several pitches after going down 0-2 in the count, struck out swinging to end the game.

“Whenever Bednar’s out there, I’ve got the utmost confidence in him,” Bryan Reynolds said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “ … Bednar’s a dog. He’s going to go out there, and he’s going to bust it every pitch for the whole inning. Never doubt Bednar.”

Reynolds played a key role in the win, as he hit a leadoff homer off San Diego starter Seth Lugo in the top of the fourth. The opposite-field shot was his 11th of the year.

Choi opened the scoring in the second inning, crushing a solo home run off Lugo.

Bench coach Don Kelly served as the Pirates’ acting manager with Derek Shelton serving a one-game suspension stemming from his ejection in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s loss to San Diego.

“Coming out, we had a big game with the series on the line,” Kelly said. “We came out, competed, (Oviedo) did a great job, we had some big hits — Reynolds, Choi and Santana (had) three big ones — it’s a great series win.”

While Oviedo’s start was overshadowed by the dramatic ending to the game, his strong six innings were critical.

Oviedo bounced back from an erratic first few innings, including the bottom of the first, when he was charged with three pitch clock violations by home plate umpire Paul Clemons.

A walk of Ha-Seong Kim, one of three free passes issued by Oviedo, came back to bite him in the fourth, when Manny Machado blooped a double into shallow left field, scoring Kim and tying the score 1-1.

Shortstop Alika Williams attempted to track down the ball, but it bounced off his glove, allowing Kim to score.

However, Oviedo kept his composure, limiting the damage and allowing just one additional hit, a single in the sixth.

Oviedo threw 90 pitches, giving up three hits and striking out five.

“It feels great,” Oviedo said of earning a win. “It’s been a while, so it means a lot. But my goal besides that is just try to give the team a chance to win the ball game. That’s what I did and thankfully we ended up winning the game.”