On July 11, MLB’s best players will converge upon Seattle’s T-Mobile Park for the. One day before that, the game’s best sluggers will partake in the Home Run Derby. Anyone who attended Friday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners got a preview of what the Derby will look like.
The tone was set early.
Andrew McCutchen, the game’s first hitter, set the tone with a lead-off homer on the second pitch of the game.
LEAD OFF HOME RUN FOR CUTCH!! pic.twitter.com/EFt8GPdOp5
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 27, 2023
That was the start of one of the greatest offensive games in the history of the Pirates, who have been a franchise since 1887.
Carlos Santana homered in the fourth inning for Pittsburgh. Jack Suwinski and Ke’Bryan Hayes did the same in the fifth inning, while Suwinski and Tucupita Marcano went deep for the Pirates in the seventh. In the eighth inning, Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds joined the fun, hitting his seventh homer of the season and his team’s seventh of the game.
Why not one more home run pic.twitter.com/c0W5MMu8rI
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 27, 2023
That tied a franchise record.
The Pirates had previously hit seven home runs only twice before — in 2003 and 1947.
The Pirates have tied their franchise record of seven home runs in a single game. That'll work.
— Justice delos Santos (@justdelossantos) May 27, 2023
#Pirates tie a franchise record with a 7th home run of the night.
Also had 7 homers in games in 2003 and 1947. @937theFan
— Josh Rowntree (@JRown32) May 27, 2023
It wasn’t as though the Mariners were left out. They got long balls from Julio Rodríguez and J.P. Crawford. But the Pirates’ power was just too much to overcome, as Pittsburgh came away with an 11-6 win.
Baseball fans reacted to the Pirates’ power display.
Speechless in Seattle#RaiseIt pic.twitter.com/VtPTWYuHL2
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 27, 2023
How many Home Runs are the Pirates going to hit? pic.twitter.com/ibrfqmgigw
— Ricky Duncan (@TheGingerYinzer) May 27, 2023
Safe to say there's no marine layer at T-Mobile Park tonight … at least for the Pirates.
— Tim Booth (@ByTimBooth) May 27, 2023
And what was particularly notable about Friday’s game wasn’t just that it tied a franchise record, but that it came from seemingly out of nowhere.
May has not been a particularly kind month for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Entering Friday night’s game against the Seattle Mariners, the Pirates were 5-15 for the month. And the offense was the primary culprit.
Through the first 20 games of May, Pittsburgh had scored only 56 runs with nine home runs in May’s first 20 games. Those numbers look even worse when we remember that 21 of those runs and two of those homers came in a two-game stretch. In the other 18 games in May, the Pirates hit only seven homers and averaged less than two runs per game.
So, if anyone told you that they saw Friday’s outburst coming, that person is either a liar or someone you should try to get the next lottery numbers from.
