Bell's two home runs help power Pirates past Padres
Josh Bell hit two of the four homers visiting Pittsburgh clubbed off Padres starter Nick Margevicius in four-plus innings Saturday night to lead the Pirates to a 7-2 victory in San Diego.
Bell, who now has 14 homers on the season, hit a solo homer in the second as the lead in a set of back-to-back homers book-ended by Bryan Reynolds.
Bell then hit a three-run homer in the third. The homer assault -- as well as Margevicius' game -- ended when Gregory Polanco opened the fifth inning with his fourth homer of the season.
Right-hander Montana DuRapau made his first Major League start as the first opener ever deployed by Pirates and allowed a hit and a walk with four strikeouts in two scoreless innings.
Left-hander Steven Brault (1-1), the second of five Pirates relievers, followed and got credit for the win, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks with two strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
Margevicius (2-5) gave up six runs on eight hits, including the four home runs, and a walk with two strikeouts in four-plus innings. In his last three starts, Margevicius has given up 14 runs on 23 hits -- including seven homers -- in 14 2/3 innings as his ERA has shot up from 3.23 to 4.96.
The homers by Bell and Reynolds in the second, respectively, traveled 430 and 397 feet. Reynolds homer was his third of the season and his second in as many nights against the Padres.
Adam Frazier opened the Pirates third with a single and moved to third on a double by Starling Marte. After Polanco popped out, Bell hit a high drive to left that sailed over the head of the leaping Hunter Renfroe at the wall.
The Padres scored in the third when Manny Machado had an RBI single after a pair or walks to extend his hitting streak to 11 straight games. The Padres brought the tying run to the plate with one out, but Brault got Hunter Renfroe to ground into an inning-ending doubleplay.
The Padres second run came in the sixth. Renfroe opened the inning with a double and scored on a pinch-hit single by Austin Allen.
After Margevicius departed, Padres relievers Phil Maton and Matt Wisler held the Pirates scoreless on two hits and one walk over four innings before the Pirates scored a final run on an infield, base-loaded RBI dribbler by Elias Diaz.
--Field Level Media
