Rookie Esmerlyn Valdez drove in three runs and Nick Gonzales and Endy Rodriguez each homered, fueling the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday afternoon.
Valdez forged a 1-1 tie with an RBI single to center field in the fifth inning. Two innings later, he recorded his first career triple after the ball sailed under the glove of Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford, allowing Brandon Lowe to score from second base and give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.
Valdez didn’t stay on third base for long, coming home on Gonzales’ bloop single to shallow left field off Jose Alvarado (3-3).
Rodriguez went deep to lead off the eighth with his fifth homer of the season.
Valdez added a sacrifice fly in the eighth and Gonzales joined Jake Mangum with a three-hit performance after homering to lead off the ninth. The homer was the fourth of the season for Gonzales.
The Pirates banged out 14 hits to salvage a split of the four-game series.
Carmen Mlodzinski (5-3) relieved starter Jared Jones and scattered two hits over three scoreless innings.
Bryce Harper ripped an RBI double in the third for the Phillies, who mustered just four hits on the day.
Alvarado permitted two runs on three hits in one inning.
Alan Rangel, who was making his first career major league start, worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third after inducing Valdez to ground into a 5-3 double play.
The Phillies opened the scoring in their half of the third, as Rafael Marchan reached on a four-pitch walk by Jones and came around to score on Harper’s double to left field.
After Valdez leveled the contest in the fifth, Tim Mayza induced Ryan O’Hearn to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Philadelphia’s Jonathan Bowlan recorded a pair of strikeouts to strand a pair of runners on base in the sixth.
