Josh Bell and Elias Diaz dumped 10-gallon coolers of Powerade on Adam Frazier while most of their teammates crowded around home plate. Frazier, who spent the first eight innings in the third base dugout Sunday afternoon, just alleviated the Pirates' frustrations with one swing, a walkoff solo home run in the 11th inning to secure a 2-1 win over the Cubs and a series split at PNC Park.
It moved them back above .500, 63-62, and trimmed their deficit in the Central Division back to nine games. Yet, Frazier's heroics didn't correct all that went wrong for 10 innings. The Pirates made four baserunning blunders, including third base coach Joey Cora telling Gregory Polanco not to tag from third on a fly ball with one out in the sixth inning, and the offense stranded five on base in the final three innings.
Clint Hurdle grinned when asked about Frazier's 413-foot shot on a 3-0 fastball, but he was quick to point out that all involved have work to do before first pitch against the Braves Monday night.
"We complicated things throughout the afternoon," Hurdle said. "We’ll unpack all that tomorrow. We pitched so well and we made some big defensive plays. ... And we had opportunities. We got in our own way a number of different times offensively, or on the bases, to handicap us."
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TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE[/caption]
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