Pirates use 6-run fifth inning to top Phillies in comeback victory

Matt Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jun 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHILADELPHIA — And, exhale. There was no collapse this time.

The Pirates and Phillies combined for seven home runs Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, but it was Endy Rodriguez’s three-run shot in the ninth that helped the Pirates open the four-game set with an 11-7 victory.

Braxton Ashcraft (8-3, 3.33 ERA) earned the win and struck out eight across six innings despite giving up five hits and three home runs. Phillies starter Aaron Nola (3-5, 6.04) was tabbed with the loss and allowed eight hits and seven earned runs in 4 1/3 frames.

Trea Turner led off the bottom of the first and tagged Ashcraft with a towering home run to left field, and Brandon Marsh went deep in the same inning. The Phillies added three more runs in the third inning, two of which coming from Bryce Harper’s 20th homer of the season.

Still, the 22-year-old outfielder nicknamed “The Magician” reached into what has become a recurring bag of tricks. Esmerlyn Valdez clobbered a two-run home run in the fourth inning to put the Pirates on the board, marking his fourth-straight game with a homer.

Then, in the fifth, Jared Triolo led off the inning with his first home run of the season — a 419-footer to straightaway center that spearheaded a six-run frame for the Pirates.

Brandon Lowe drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, Ryan O’Hearn slapped an RBI single and the Pirates drew three walks and capitalized off two Phillies errors to take an 8-5 lead.

The Phillies added a run in the eighth when Marsh homered off Gregory Soto, and Yohan Ramirez gave up an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto after taking over with two outs in the inning. Ramirez worked out of the inning without surrendering any further damage, and Rodriguez added some cushion with a three-run homer in the top of the ninth.

It was over when …

Rodriguez hit his fourth home run of the season to extend the Pirates’ lead to 11-7.

On the mound

Ashcraft gave up three home runs in a game for the first time in his big league career, and all three came when he was ahead in the count with two strikes. They also all resulted from different pitches — the first was a hanging curveball, the second was a low slider and the third was an inside fastball.

After Harper homered to put the Phillies ahead, 5-0, in the third inning, Ashcraft shouted into his glove out of frustration. Still, he helped ease the bullpen’s workload by ultimately eating up six innings and posting his highest pitch count since May 26.

Evan Sisk was the first out of the bullpen and wriggled out of a seventh-inning jam with one out and runners on second and third. Soto and Ramirez both struggled with command and gave up a combined three hits and two runs in the eighth, but Mason Montgomery neatly closed the ninth.

At the plate

With two formidable Phillies starters lying ahead in Cristopher Sanchez and Zach Wheeler, the Pirates needed to capitalize against Nola, who entered Monday with a 5.58 ERA.

They did just that.

Between the fourth and fifth innings, the Pirates tallied six hits (including two home runs) and drew three walks. Triolo homered for the first time since Sept. 21, 2025, Konnor Griffin went 2 for 5 with a double and Valdez went 2 for 3 with a home run, a double and a walk.

Bucs bites

— Valdez is the first Pirate to homer in four straight games since Corey Dickerson in 2018. He’s also now one of three Pirates rookies in the modern era to accomplish that feat, joining Dick Stuart (1958) and Garrett Jones (2009).

— Bryan Reynolds extended his MLB-leading on-base streak to 34 games with a fourth-inning double. He’s batted .347 with 12 doubles and seven home runs in that span.

Up next

Bubba Chandler (3-7, 4.42) will take the mound for the Pirates in the second game of the series at 6:40 p.m. ET Tuesday. The Phillies will counter with Sanchez (9-3, 2.13), who twirled a complete game shutout with 13 strikeouts when he faced the Pirates on May 16 at PNC Park.

____