WASHINGTON - The Pirates didn’t exactly cruise through the finish line of their road trip. They had to claw for it.
By the time Konnor Griffin came up in the top of the eighth Sunday, Pittsburgh had already let a 4-0 lead slip and was staring at a tricky late-game setup. The Pirates had gone 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position, Mason Montgomery was already out of the game, and Gregory Soto was being asked to cover extra ground.
Then Griffin delivered the swing that changed everything.
His two-run single through the right side put the Pirates ahead for good, Brandon Lowe followed with a blast to right, and Pittsburgh closed out an 11-5 win over the Nationals at Nationals Park.
“We’re fighting,” Griffin said. “It was a good road trip for us. We’ll get back home, and we need to keep doing that.”
The result sent the Pirates home at 4-3 on the trip and 46-45 overall. It also gave them a fifth straight season series win over Washington.
Griffin was everywhere. He had already flashed the glove twice in spectacular fashion and added a stolen base before his key hit in the eighth. Facing Nationals reliever Brad Lord, he sent a ball into right that scored two and gave Pittsburgh a 6-4 edge.
Lowe then turned on a down-and-in heater and launched it 396 feet to right at 107.6 mph, pushing the lead to 9-4.
“Felt good to find a barrel, that’s for sure,” Lowe said. “It was all set up with a good at-bat from Konnor. Made mine a lot easier knowing we had a lead.”
Soto handled the seventh and eighth and gave up only a solo homer. Henry Davis added a two-run single in the ninth to add more breathing room. Isaac Mattson and Dennis Santana also turned in scoreless innings around Soto.
The biggest escape came earlier, when Montgomery entered with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth after Bubba Chandler ran into trouble. Washington managed only one run on a sacrifice, and Griffin helped limit the damage with another absurd catch to steal a hit from CJ Abrams.
“How about that bullpen?” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “[Montgomery’s inning] might’ve been the difference in the game.”
Pittsburgh had built its early cushion with a three-run third and Reynolds’ homer in the fourth. Tyler Callihan started the scoring with a two-run single through the right side in the second, continuing a strong run with runners in scoring position; before Sunday, he was hitting .316 (9 for 16) with a 1.206 OPS in those spots this season.
Jake Mangum made it 3-0, and Reynolds kept rolling at Nationals Park with a middle-middle changeup he hammered for his latest homer there. He now has five homers and 18 RBIs in 18 career games at the ballpark.
Then Washington started chipping away. Luis Garcia Jr. hit a two-run homer in the third, and the Nationals added single runs in the fourth and fifth to erase the lead.
By then, Griffin was already putting on a defensive show in shallow left. The day ended up feeling like a statement game for him as much as anything else.
It was almost a Gordie Howe Hat Trick: a clutch hit, a stolen base and elite defense at short.
"That was great,” Griffin said. “Big win for us to take the series and felt good to showcase all my skills.”
The Pirates also reached a notable milestone through Griffin, who became the fastest Pirate to 20 steals in the Modern Era (1901-present).
Sunday’s win mattered on its own, but it also served as a useful snapshot of what Pittsburgh needs over the next stretch. The Pirates are about to enter 22 straight games against teams .500 or better, and this road trip showed both the rough patches and the formula they’ll need to lean on.
They were shut down by Cristopher Sanchez, buried in a 5-0 hole in the first game in Philadelphia, and had a rough one Friday in Washington before rallying late. But they also kept showing up in the later innings, and Sunday brought the full package: timely hitting, steady bullpen work and big defense.
“We stayed in the fight,” Kelly said. “To play the way these guys played, it’s impressive.”
Lowe put it plainly after the game: “It doesn't even matter if it's close late or we're up big late or whatever. All the wins we can get are huge at this point,” Lowe said. “Seeing our bullpen come in and shut the door, it's always a good thing to see.”
Chandler’s outing was the one part that didn’t fit the script. He had been better in recent starts, carrying a 3.77 ERA over his previous five, but Sunday was a rougher night. He walked four, threw a wild pitch, allowed a home run and challenged a call that wasn’t close.
He gave up four earned runs on six hits, threw first-pitch strikes to just 10 of 21 batters, did not record a strikeout for the first time this season and generated only two whiffs.
Still, the late surge made sure his line didn’t decide the game.
“I’m going to forget about it when we get on the plane, but we got the win today; that’s all that matters,” Chandler said. “Shoutout our guys for being nails coming in after me.”
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The three-team deal that sent Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery to Pittsburgh already looked like a useful summer move, and the Pirates have only gotten more out of it as the season has gone on. Lowe has been the headliner, giving the lineup the kind of middle-order thump it badly needed, while Mangum has settled in as a steady depth option and Montgomery has added another arm to the bullpen mix.
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