Pittsburgh, PA – Starling Marte's eighth-inning home run helped cap Pittsburgh's comeback as the Pirates completed their first home three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds since 2010 with a 10-7 victory at PNC Park.
"They (Reds) were one of the premium teams in major league baseball last year," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. "To finish the series off, very gratifying, good feeling."
Michael McKenry hit his first two home runs of the season for Pittsburgh, which scored six times in the bottom of the eighth to rally from an early 5-0 deficit and improve to .500 for the first time this year.
Neil Walker went 3-for-5, while Andrew McCutchen and Travis Snider each added two hits and an RBI.
Jared Hughes (1-0) picked up the win for the Pirates despite allowing a run and three hits in the top of the decisive eighth inning. Phil Irwin started for Pittsburgh and allowed five runs - four earned - while striking out four in 4 2/3 innings of work in his major league debut.
Jonathan Broxton (0-1) lasted just two-thirds of an inning in relief for the Reds and allowed six earned runs on the way to his first loss of the season.
"Never seen big Broxton that wild," said Reds manager Dusty Baker. "And then every homer was proceeded with a walk."
Brandon Phillips had three RBI for Cincinnati, while Joey Votto hit his first home run since June of 2012 in the loss.
Irwin allowed the first three men he faced to reach base to load the bags for Phillips, who came through with a two-RBI single. The young Pirate starter dug in and avoided a potentially devastating inning, however, by getting Jay Bruce to ground into a double play and Todd Frazier to ground out softly to third.
Cincinnati tacked on two more runs in the second on an RBI double to deep center field from Shin-Soo Choo. Chris Heisey scored easily and after Marte had trouble getting the ball in, Ryan Hanigan crossed home plate as well.
After six scoreless innings against Reds starter Mat Latos, McKendry put Pittsburgh on the board in the seventh with a shot over the wall in left- center field. Then with two outs, Marte singled and Snider knocked him in with a double to right, prompting Baker to remove Latos from the game.
"I just ran into a little bit of trouble," said Latos.
Logan Ondrusek entered and immediately allowed Snider to advance to third on a wild pitch. Snider then came around to score on McCutchen's RBI single, bringing Pittsburgh's deficit to 5-3.
Pinch-hitter Gaby Sanchez followed by roping an RBI single between third base and shortstop to bring in McCutchen, who had stolen second earlier in the at- bat.
The Reds tacked on another run in the top of the eighth before Broxton entered and allowed McKendry to tie the score with his second homer of the afternoon, a two-run blast just over the outstretched glove of Heisey in left field that knotted the score at 6-6 and set up Marte's heroics later in the inning.
Votto led off the ninth with a bomb to deep center field to complete the scoring.
Game Notes
The 10 runs and 15 hits were both season-highs for the Pirates ... Pittsburgh went 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position ... Both teams left eight men on base.
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