Michael A. Taylor hits home run in 9th to lead Pirates to win

HOUSTON — Michael A. Taylor ran hard out of the box. By his own admission, he’s not a very good judge of knowing if his long fly balls have the distance to leave the yard or just fall short.

“Just a reflex, but I knew I got it pretty good,” he said with a grin.

Oh did he get all of it. Taylor was looking for a Josh Hader fastball that would fall down into the zone and walloped it when he left it hanging. 109.6 mph off the bat. 421 feet to left-center. Three runs, and undoubtedly the biggest hit of Taylor’s Pirates career, propelling them to a 5-3 win over the Astros at Minute Maid Park Monday.

This team could very well be nursing a four-game losing streak on the eve of the Trade Deadline, but thanks to two-out hits in the ninth by Joey Bart and Taylor on back-to-back days, they are instead 54-52 and very much in the thick of the National League’s Wild Card race.

“Ideally we don’t want our hearts to be pounding that much in the ninth inning,” said Paul Skenes, tapping his heart, “but it’s definitely nice to pull these two games out. It’s kinda our identity as a team. We’ve known it’s been there. But it’s nice to pull them out.”

Like Sunday, this had the makings of a very rough loss, especially from an injury standpoint. Joshua Palacios exited in the fifth inning with left hamstring discomfort. In the sixth, Ji Hwan Bae needed assistance getting off the field after he had a midair collision with Astros first baseman Jon Singleton leaping to try to avoid a tag. He left with left knee discomfort.

Derek Shelton said postgame that the team would have a better understanding of the severity of the injuries, but Taylor sounded optimistic that his teammates avoided major injuries.

“We have a great strength and training staff, so they’ll be back on the field soon,” Taylor said.

That would be huge if true, especially since the team is going to be without second baseman Nick Gonzales for weeks with a groin injury, which he suffered Saturday in Arizona.

Instead, the replacements came through. Taylor hit the winning homer, and Connor Joe picked up an outfield assist. Yasmani Grandal got the offense going with a solo shot in the sixth to break up a perfect-game bid by the Astros’ bullpen after original starter Jake Bloss was traded to the Blue Jays within the hour of first pitch.

The Astros boast one of the better bullpens in the American League, but couldn’t hold a late lead, starting with a game-tying, two-out double by Oneil Cruz that left the bat at 119.3 mph, just another outlandish oddity in a night full of irregularities.

“The fact that we’ve had the two back-to-back comebacks, then we had the injuries today and it’s at the Deadline, so things are going on, maybe its a full moon,” said Shelton. “It’s a little different.”

After Skenes tossed six innings of two-run ball (one of which was unearned), Carmen Mlodzinski and Aroldis Chapman fired scoreless frames before David Bednar got out of a bases loaded jam with just one run allowed to save it.

“Full team win,” Shelton said. “I think grit’s a good word there. We’ve had to use a lot of people the last two days and we’ve had different people step up in big moments. Overall, two good teams victories.”

It’s two pivotal wins in a second half stretch where the Pirates exclusively face teams in the playoff picture or hunt. That roster could potentially be supplemented — as it was on Monday with a trade for Rockies reliever Jalen Beeks — ahead of the Trade Deadline, or there could be some roster churn if Palacios or Bae need to hit the injured list. There could also be deals involving prospects, something the Pirates did on Monday as well when they swapped Quinn Priester for Nick Yorke.

Regardless of how these next 24 hours play out, there certainly is confidence in that clubhouse.

“I think we have all the components to win,” Taylor said. “Our starting pitching’s been unbelievable. Our bullpen’s great. We play good defense, and timely hitting is there as well. Everything’s there. We’ve just got to put it all together and play the game the right way.”