Gonzales Walks It Off in 12 as Pirates Outlast Padres

Nick Gonzales singled to center in the 12th inning to score Jared Triolo, giving Pittsburgh a 3-2 win over San Diego on August 25. It took extra innings and a gut-punch equalizer to get there, but the Pirates found a way.

Pittsburgh built its lead the hard way in the sixth. Esmerlyn Valdez launched a 414-foot home run to center to put the Pirates on top 1-0, and Rafael Flores Jr. followed with a two-run double to center — scoring Reynolds — to push it to 2-0. San Diego clawed one back in the same inning when Freddy Fermin scored on a balk, but the scoring sequence shows something worth noting: the data logs that balk play twice, suggesting some confusion in the inning, though the score held at 2-1 heading out of the sixth.

Braxton Ashcraft gave Pittsburgh exactly what it needed — 6.0 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts. Robbie Ray worked 5.1 innings for San Diego, allowing 5 hits and 2 earned runs with 5 strikeouts. The story of the night, though, was the eighth inning. Jake Cronenworth singled to center to score Harris and tie the game at 2-2, and that single swing flipped the win probability from 30% to 61% in San Diego's favor. Pittsburgh had been in control for six innings and suddenly found itself staring at a tied ballgame with its lead evaporated. Adrian Morejon then threw two scoreless innings for the Padres — no hits, no earned runs, 2 strikeouts — and it looked like San Diego had all the momentum.

But Yohan Ramirez answered for Pittsburgh in the 12th with a perfect inning: 0 hits, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts in 1.0 IP. That set the stage for Gonzales, who finished 2-for-5 on the night, to punch a single through the middle and send Triolo home with the winning run. Triolo, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored, was the right man in the right place. Flores Jr. also finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Cronenworth's 2-for-5 night was the best individual performance San Diego could muster. Pittsburgh appears to have found late-game resilience when it mattered most — grinding through 12 innings to take a game that, for a stretch in the eighth, looked like it had slipped away entirely. Final: PIT 3, SD 2.