The Pittsburgh Pirates became the first team in major league baseball history to have three different players have three-home run games in one month Thursday after catcher Michael Perez hit three last night in the Bucs 8-7 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The Perez game follows Bryan Reynolds three-home run effort the day before and Jack Suwinski’s June 19th. Perez entered the game with just a .146 batting average. O’Neil Cruz hit his second home run of the year. Suwinski had two hits and scored three runs.
David Bednar returned from a back injury, but allowed three earned runs on four hits in the ninth inning. Yerry De Los Santos earned his second save in as many games by getting the final out of the game. JT Brubaker won his second game of the season. He pitched six innings allowing four runs on seven hits.
The win also snapped a Brewers eight-game winning streak against the Pirates.
The two teams play again tonight at 7:05pm. Pre-game on WISR begins at 6:40pm.
( Saturday’s game begins at 4:05pm. WISR pre-game is 3:40pm. Sunday’s game has a 1:35pm start. WISR pre-game begins at 12:35pm with the Ben Cherington Show. )
22-year old Tucupita Marcano has returned the Pirates from the Injured List and to make room for him on their roster, the Bucs have designated Yu Chang for assignment. Marcano has batted .262 in 19 games this season and can play infield and outfield. Chang has batted just .167 since being acquired for cash from Cleveland May 30th. He has struck out 18 times in 49 plate appearances.