D-backs win third straight in opener vs. Pirates

PHOENIX — If there’s a word the D-backs like to use to describe themselves, it’s gritty.

The way they win isn’t always elegant and sometimes it’s even ugly, but it’s the identity they’ve chosen and one they wore proudly during their run to the World Series last October.

Friday night’s 4-3 win over the Pirates was the latest example of a team that hangs around and hangs around before doing just enough to win.

The win was the third in a row for the D-backs, who are one game out of a Wild Card spot in the National League.

“Those are the types of things we’ve been doing a lot of lately,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “We hang in there, we duke it out, we find a little crack and we just start to string together good at-bats.”

Indeed, things didn’t look good for the D-backs when the Pirates scored a pair of runs off ace Zac Gallen in the first inning and another one in the third.

The Pirates, though, couldn’t deliver that knockout blow to Gallen as they went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

And once Gallen settled in during the third inning, he was able to keep the Pirates off the board before departing with two on in the seventh.

“I know I’ve got to keep us in the game,” Gallen said. “I mean, we’ve been pretty great offensively, so I’ve got to give these guys a chance to get us back in the game. So just trying to settle down a little bit and get on the efficiency train and see how deep I get into the game.”

The D-backs scratched across a run in the third off Pirates starter Luis L. Ortiz before putting together a three-run sixth to take the lead.

The sixth-inning rally was started off by Joc Pederson’s 453-foot home run to right, the second-longest homer by a D-backs player at home this season.

Pederson, too, showed the same resilience as the team he plays for. In his first two at-bats of the night against Ortiz, it didn’t look like he saw the ball very well as he struck out twice.

“Just tried to look for a good pitch and put a good swing on it and keep it, keep it simple,” Pederson said. “I had some uncomfortable swings throughout the first couple of at-bats off him, so I was really just looking to put the ball in play.”

The other two runs the D-backs scored in the sixth were more indicative of the way they’ve been going of late. They capitalized on a walk, collected a couple of base hits and got the final run on a wild pitch.

“It’s D-backs type of baseball,” Lovullo said. “And we know what’s under our hood. We prepare for these types of moments. We talk about execution, not just offensively, but picking up the baseball and making plays and doing the right things and just having a high baseball IQ and not being afraid of these types of games. I think our team embraces these situations. Maybe we learned that in the playoffs last season.”

Once the D-backs got the lead the bullpen shut things down from there. The successful triumvirate of Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Thompson and Paul Sewald kept the Pirates at bay the rest of the way.

“The guys in the bullpen have been awesome,” Gallen said. “It just goes back to the culture, really, guys have bought in. We’re going to really grind teams down. Even if you happen to get us on a night, more likely than not, we’re not going to make it easy on you.”