Brandon Lowe gets robbed by PNC Park in Pirates’ strangest twist yet

Baseball has a way of making the same swing mean two completely different things depending on where it lands. Brandon Lowe was just reminded of that, courtesy of the delightfully quirky dimensions of PNC Park.

Last Thursday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Lowe hit a 342-foot ball that bounced off the top of the wall near the left-field foul pole, appeared to stay alive in the weirdest possible way and allowed him to circle the bases for one of the stranger Pirates highlights of the season. Despite Lowe's sprint around the bases, the drive was later ruled a regular home run, of the non-inside-the-park variety.

Fast forward to Monday against the Chicago Cubs, and Lowe hit another ball that traveled the exact same Statcast distance: 342 feet. This time, instead of a home run, it became a single after clanging off the Clemente Wall at PNC Park.

Same distance. Completely different result. That is the beautiful nonsense of baseball, and specifically the beautiful nonsense of PNC Park.

Brandon Lowe is built for PNC Park, but the Clemente Wall can be ruthless

The Clemente Wall is part of what makes Pittsburgh’s ballpark so distinct. It is 21 feet high in right field, a tribute to Roberto Clemente’s No. 21, and it has a way of turning routine-looking fly balls into chaos. Sometimes it gifts left-handed hitters cheap homers down the line. Sometimes it turns hard contact into doubles. And sometimes, apparently, it takes a ball that would have been a homer days earlier in St. Louis and spits it back into play.

The irony of it all is that the Pirates acquired Lowe in part because his left-handed power looked like it would play beautifully at PNC Park, especially with that short porch in right. In many ways, it has. But Monday was the reminder that PNC does not simply hand out favors.

The funniest part is that Lowe still helped the Pirates. His later RBI double gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in a game they eventually won 2-1, with Henry Davis delivering the decisive homer and Wilber Dotel earning his first MLB win.

Still, the oddity is too good to ignore. A 342-foot homer at Busch Stadium. A 342-foot single at PNC Park. Same hitter, same distance, wildly different reward.

That is not bad luck as much as it is ballpark personality. PNC Park is gorgeous, quirky and occasionally cruel. On Monday, Lowe became its latest victim — robbed not by a defender, but by 21 feet of Clemente Wall weirdness.

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