Oneil Cruz single in 11th lifts Pirates to walk-off win over Orioles

When Oneil Cruz came to bat in the bottom of the 11th inning, the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop wasn’t worried about the extra-inning stakes in a tied game against the Baltimore Orioles.

With automatic runner Henry Davis on second base, Cruz simply wanted to put the ball in play. Jonathan Heasley threw a sweeper below the strike zone that Cruz smacked to right field to score Davis.

His Pirates teammates mobbed Cruz on the infield after his game-winning single for a 5-4 win — and the first walk-off hit of his career — Saturday before 24,089 at PNC Park. It was the third extra-innings win of the season for the Pirates (7-2), matching their 2023 total.

And it marked a monumental change of fortunes for Cruz. In the ninth game last year, Cruz fractured his left ankle on an awkward slide into home plate against the Chicago White Sox and missed the remainder of the season. His only previous walk-off came on a bases-loaded, four-pitch walk to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2, on Oct. 3, 2022.

“This one was the better experience,” Cruz said through translator Stephen Morales, flashing a smile. “This was my first time as a player to do a walk-off (hit) in the big leagues. It feels pretty good.”

It was a wild ending to a game that started with Pirates left-hander Bailey Falter not allowing a hit through the first five innings and newly acquired catcher Joey Bart hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat only for the bullpen to give up three runs as the Orioles rallied.

But after going 3-9 in extra innings last year, the Pirates won in 12 innings on Opening Day at Miami, in 10 innings against the Marlins on March 31 and in 11 innings against the Orioles (5-3).

“They’re definitely not traditional and definitely not the way we want to do it … but I think they just keep playing,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think we’ve seen with this group through nine games that they play 27 outs, 30 outs, 33 outs, whatever it takes. I give them a lot of credit, because they don’t give up.”

Bart wasted no time introducing himself to Pirates fans in a memorable starting debut. Acquired from the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, Bart blasted a two-run homer in his first at-bat and doubled in his second. He also caught six shutout innings by Falter, who had his best performance since being acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline last summer.

“I would say that’s very fair,” Shelton said. “That’s the sharpest we’ve seen Bailey. He was really good. As we’ve talked about, that’s a really good team, and he kept ‘em off the barrel the entire game. It was an outstanding effort by Bailey.”

Bart had familiarized himself with Falter by catching his final bullpen Wednesday, and he encouraged him to go “off script” by using his elevated fastball against an Orioles lineup filled with fastball hitters.

Falter threw four-seamers on 58 of his 78 pitches, getting 34 swings with six whiffs, seven called strikes and inducing six groundouts and seven flyouts while allowing one hit and one walk with one strikeout.

“Honestly, I think I just kind of shied away from being the player that ended up getting me to the big leagues, so we’ve been trying to work on some other stuff instead of coming to my identity,” Falter said. “Personally, I think my fastball is my best pitch and all my other stuff is just to get you off of it.”

Added Bart: “Falter just attacked it and had really good results. It was one of those games where you look up, and you don’t even realize that he only gave up one hit. He was just cruising along.”

The Pirates scored three runs in the second inning, highlighted by Bart’s homer. Edward Olivares doubled down the left-field line, then scored on a single up the middle by Rowdy Tellez to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. That brought Bart, whose father Tommy is a Burrell High School graduate, to bat for the first time as a Pirate. With two outs, Orioles starter Tyler Wells left an 0-1 cutter over the middle of the plate that Bart crushed 410 feet to left-center for a 3-0 Pirates lead.

The Orioles took advantage when right-hander Ryder Ryan relieved Falter in the seventh, as Anthony Santander drew a leadoff walk and Jordan Westburg doubled to left to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Austin Hays grounded out to third to score Santander, and Cedric Mullins hit a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Westburg to cut it to 3-2.

In the eighth, Gunnar Henderson drew a one-out walk against Pirates lefty Aroldis Chapman, then stole second and third. With two outs and the go-ahead run at the plate, Chapman recovered from a 2-0 count to get Mountcastle swinging at a 100.6-mph fastball low and inside for a strikeout to end the Orioles’ rally.

The Pirates had two runners on in the bottom of the eighth, but Jacob Webb got Jared Triolo swinging and Bart looking to escape.

David Bednar got Santander looking at a 97.6-mph fastball for a called third strike to start the ninth inning, but Westburg singled to left, pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn followed with a single to center and both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Cedric Mullins hit a sharp grounder to first base, and Westburg beat Tellez’s throw to the plate, sliding past catcher Bart for the tying run.

The Pirates prevented the go-ahead run when Cruz fielded pinch hitter Colton Cowser’s grounder and threw a strike to Bart to get O’Hearn trying to score from third.

As the automatic runner in the 10th, Tony Kemp advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Adley Rutschman’s sacrifice fly to center to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead. The Pirates tied it in the bottom of the 10th, when Olivares drew a bases-loaded walk to score Reynolds.

The Pirates had a chance to win it with the bases loaded and no outs in the 10th, but Tellez popped up to first, Triolo hit a roller to third that Ramon Urias scooped and threw home for the forceout, and Bart went down swinging on a sweeper.

After Luis Ortiz and Josh Fleming combined to hold the Orioles scoreless in the 11th, Shelton substituted Davis for Bart as the automatic runner. Despite sitting on the bench all game, Davis swore he wasn’t cold because of the adrenaline of being involved in extra innings. As Cruz made contact, Davis made a wide turn at third and barreled home before sliding head-first across the plate.

“I was hauling. I was putting everything I had in the tank into it,” Davis said. “They all count. Any game we play can decide the division, can decide whatever it may be down the stretch. Playing like that, playing our best baseball is important.”