Henry Davis and Brandon Lowe each homered and finished with two hits and two RBIs, helping the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday afternoon.
The Pirates’ clutch hits backed up a strong start from Bubba Chandler (3-7), who gave up one run on five hits with four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.
With the victory, Pittsburgh is above .500 at the midway point of the season for the first time since 2015 — the last time the Pirates advanced to the postseason.
The Mariners dropped their second in a row and fourth in their past six games.
Leading 3-1, Pittsburgh gave its much-maligned bullpen some insurance with two runs in the eighth inning.
Davis began the inning with a double off Mariners reliever Alex Hoppe, stole third and scored on a single by Lowe, who moved to second on a wild pitch. After Hoppe walked Bryan Reynolds, Lowe advanced to third and Reynolds to second on a ground out.
Ryan O’Hearn, who had four hits in the Pirates’ 11-1 win on Wednesday, drove in Lowe with an RBI single. Pirates’ relievers combined to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings.
Davis belted a two-run homer to right-center field off Mariners starter Bryce Miller (3-2) with no outs in the bottom of the third to put Pittsburgh ahead 3-0.
Miller struck out 11 and did not issue a walk. But he allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Seattle answered in the top of the fifth after Chandler issued walks to Mitch Garver and Colt Emerson to open the inning. J.P. Crawford singled to right to cut the deficit to 3-1, but Chandler limited the damage by striking out Cal Raleigh and inducing Julio Rodriguez to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Pittsburgh placed first baseman Spencer Horwitz on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain and recalled infielder Jack Brannigan from Double-A Altoona.
Seattle infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma.
