The Pittsburgh Pirates Top 5 Home Runs of 2015

5) Pedro Alvarez vs St. Louis Cardinals – May 3, 2015 

In the final game of the first series with rival St. Louis, the Pirates were held without a run until the 9th inning when Jung Ho Kang hit a game-tying solo home run off Cardinals’ closer Trevor Rosenthal.

After both team’s closers had been used, the Cardinals had to turn to Mitch Harris while the Pirates called on Rob Scahill and both were able to deliver two solid innings well into extras.

It was in the top of the 12th inning when Cardinals’ manager Mike Matheny summoned Sam Tuivailala from the bullpen to face Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Pedro Alvarez.

After he got McCutchen to fly out to left and Marte on a called strike three, Tuivailala would face the former number-2 overall draft pick, Pedro Alvarez. On the 1-1 pitch, Alvarez turned around a low fastball and crushed it to right field.

This gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the 12th inning and their win probability rose from 40% to 82% on one swing. Unfortunately, Radhames Liz would struggle once entering the game for Pittsburgh; he allowed the tying run to score on a single in the bottom of the 12th and then allowed the walk-off home run to Kolten Wong in the 14th inning.