'That was quite a baseball game': Pirates beat Padres in wild, four-hour affair

Apr. 14—If this was supposed to be a pitcher's duel, Blake Snell and Chad Kuhl unloaded most of their ammunition in a 75-pitch first inning that lasted 51 minutes and set the tone for a long night of baseball.

Mostly bad baseball.

By the time this one was over, four hours and seven minutes after the first pitch, the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres had combined for 18 hits, 17 walks, 14 strikeouts, seven hit batsmen, four double plays, four wild pitches, three errors, two stolen bases and one passed ball while stranding 27 runners.

A thing of beauty this was not, but the Pirates rallied from a rough start to prevail over the Padres, 8-4, Tuesday night before a vocal crowd of 4,814 at PNC Park that appeared to revel in every minute of the mess.

"That was quite a baseball game," Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said in an on-field postgame interview with AT&T SportsNet.

Stallings went 3 for 4 with a walk and three RBIs and Erik Gonzalez 3 for 5 with two RBIs for the Pirates (4-7), who also got multi-hit games from Bryan Reynolds on their way to 12 hits. If getting hit twice by pitches counts, add Phillip Evans to that list.

Kuhl endured a 37-pitch first inning, giving up a leadoff home run to Trent Grisham that was followed by a double by Jake Cronenworth. Kuhl had control issues with two outs, walking Wil Myers, hitting Tommy Pham in the batting helmet with a pitch and then walking Jurickson Profar with the bases loaded to make it 2-0.

Somehow, Snell fared even worse.

After getting the first two batters out, the Padres left-hander struggled against a righty-heavy Pirates batting order. The 2018 AL Cy Young winner, acquired after leading Tampa Bay to the World Series, lasted only two-thirds of an inning. Snell gave up three runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batsman while throwing 38 pitches.

After retiring the first two batters, Snell surrendered a single to Reynolds, walked Evans and gave up a two-run double to Stallings that tied the game. After Gonzalez doubled off the visiting bullpen screen in left-center to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead, Snell walked Adam Frazier and plunked Anthony Alford — who was 0 for 15 coming into the game — to load the bases. That caused Padres manager Jayce Tingler to give Snell the hook, even with the pitcher on deck. Craig Stammen got Kuhl to ground out to third to end the inning.

"It feels like some days are hitting days and walking days and some days are pitching days. It's just how baseball works sometimes," Kuhl said. "I go out there and have a rought first, and Snell just turns around and does the same thing. Guys worked great at-bats, and give all the credit to our guys for making him work and staying within their approach and doing everything they can to get those runs back. It was awesome."

When Stallings got behind the plate, he looked up at the clock and cracked to home plate umpire Vic Carapazza, "We're already in the top of the second. It's only been an hour.'" Stallings had three more hours of catching to do, as seven Pirates pitchers accounted for 13 walks, three hit batsmen, two wild pitches and only six strikeouts.

"It was weird. It was just a weird game," Stallings said. "What was it like? It was weird. That's about all I've got for you."

It got weirder when the Padres regained the lead in the second, after Grisham drew a walk, took second on Kuhl's throwing error, advanced to third on a fly out and scored on a wild pitch to tie it.

But the Pirates answered in the bottom of the second, as Kevin Newman hit a leadoff double and scored the go-ahead run when Reynolds singled to left. Stallings came through with his third RBI on a single to right to score Reynolds for a 5-3 lead.

San Diego scored in the fourth when Kuhl walked Grisham and Machado and gave up a single to Eric Hosmer. Kuhl was pulled after giving up three earned runs on four hits and seven walks in 3 2/3 innings, only for Clay Holmes to plunk pinch hitter Jorge Matteo in the back with his second pitch.

The Pirates added runs in the third and fifth, thanks to Padres errors, but stranded two runners in scoring position in the fifth and another in the sixth.

Chris Stratton (1-0) inherited two runners from David Bednar in the seventh, only to strike out pinch hitter Ha-Seong Kim and Grisham and then get Cronenworth to ground into a fielder's choice.

Kyle Crick got into a bases-loaded jam in the eighth after walking Hosmer, hitting Matteo with a pitch and walking Pham before getting Profar to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

"We turned some double plays at big times," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. "Pretty cool situation in the eighth. I know there's not a lot of people in the ballpark because of the restrictions, but in the eighth they got into it. Cricky got that double play. You could feel it. That was pretty sick."

The Pirates increased their lead to 8-4 on a Gonzalez single off Taylor Williams, who hit two batters and was pulled with two outs and the bases loaded. Emilio Pagan struck out Alford to end the inning.

"That was not the cleanest game we were going to play all year long," Shelton said. "We were able to come out with the victory. Sometimes you win ugly. We won ugly."

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .