Pirates make one thing clear with wild win that should have been a loss

There are plenty of reasons to doubt the Pittsburgh Pirates’ chances of completing a September miracle. But Tuesday night showed there’s at least one reason not to bury them yet.

The Pirates’ absurd 13-12 walk-off win over the San Francisco Giants was the kind of game they probably should have lost. They blew a six-run lead, watched a bullpen that had become one of their biggest strengths implode in the eighth inning and needed a throwing error to finally escape.

And yet, they escaped. That's worth noting for a team whose postseason chances are hanging by a thread.

The Pirates sit five games back of the final National League Wild Card spot with several teams still ahead of them. Nobody needs to pretend they're suddenly playoff favorites because they survived one chaotic September night. But this isn't the kind of game a team wins when it has stopped believing.

Pirates playoff math is still ugly, but Tuesday's win vs Giants shows Pittsburgh hasn't checked out yet

The Pirates could have folded at several points against San Francisco, like when Paul Skenes allowed five runs in the second inning.

Instead of letting the game get away, Pittsburgh's offense answered with a remarkable nine-run third in which all nine hits were singles. When the Giants kept chipping away, Pittsburgh kept adding. And when San Francisco finally erased the lead with five runs in the eighth, Mason Montgomery steadied things in the ninth long enough to give the offense one more chance.

Brandon Lowe singled. Rafael Flores Jr. put the ball in play. Chaos followed. Game over.

“It's awesome,” Flores said after the game. “You want to play games like that. I'm assuming that's what playoffs are like.”

That might sound ambitious considering where the Pirates stand, but it also reveals something about the clubhouse. These players are still talking about October. They're still treating these games as preparation for something bigger rather than counting down the days until the offseason.

The Pirates can't control the teams ahead of them. They can't undo a brutal second half or recover games they already squandered. They can only keep winning and hope the standings eventually cooperate.

Tuesday was their third straight victory, their first three-game winning streak since before the All-Star break. They have also won four of their past five series and now have a six-game homestand against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels. If there is going to be one final push, this is where it has to happen.

The Pirates nearly turned a historic offensive night into a crushing loss. Instead, they found another way to survive. Their playoff odds may say the season is close to over, but their clubhouse clearly hasn’t gotten the message.

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