Rays rally with 2 out in 9th to defeat David Bednar, Pirates, 6-5

Two unusual hits by rookies — one a high fly ball that deflected off a catwalk near the Tropicana Field dome and another that didn’t hit anything until it traveled 443 feet — would have lifted the Pittsburgh Pirates to victory under normal circumstances.

But the Tampa Bay Rays’ 6-5 victory Saturday was anything but normal.

That’s because Pirates closer David Bednar failed to save a game for only the third time in 14 opportunities this season.

“It’s baseball. It happens,” said starter JT Brubaker, who was in line to earn his second victory of the season. “Very rare, very unfortunate.”

Handed a 5-4 lead in the ninth, Bednar allowed a bases-loaded single to Isaac Paredes with two outs in the ninth — on an 0-2 count. Bednar, who did not have good fastball command throughout the inning, couldn’t slip a 97 mph four-seamer past Paredes, who had homered in the previous inning.

Bednar retired the first two batters in the ninth but walked the next two, only his ninth and 10th free passes in 35¹⁄₃ innings. Then, rookie pinch-hitter Jonathan Aranda rifled a single off Bednar’s glove at 103.3 mph.

Bednar recovered the baseball and looked like he was ready to throw to first but held the ball.

“It would have been a bang-bang play,” he said. “I didn’t have a great grip on it. My feet weren’t set. I just didn’t want to throw it up the line and (lose) a chance to get the next guy.”

The bigger point was Bednar’s lack of command.

“Just frustrating,” he said. “Brubaker pitches (well). (Wil) Crowe came in, (Chase) De Jong, they all threw great. To not get it done for those guys, not finish it up is a tough one, for sure.

“I just really didn’t have great fastball command, put myself in bad counts, tried to be a little bit too aggressive.”

The defeat was the second in row for the Pirates (29-42) against the Rays ( 39-32).

Until Paredes’ walk-off single, the sixth inning — not the ninth— appeared to be crucial to the outcome.

Down 3-2, the Pirates’ Daniel Vogelbach walked with one out. Bligh Madris’ fly ball looked like the second out, but it banged off a catwalk high above the playing field while Rays right fielder Josh Lowe was preparing to make a routine catch.

Madris, another rookie, doesn’t need to apologize for the gift. He was 3 for 4 with two singles and a double, leaving the game with a .381 batting average. Madris is the fifth Pirate all-time to record two three-hit games among his first five.

Redirected, the ball fell for a single, and Jack Suwinski followed with a mammoth three-run homer to right field against left-handed relief pitcher Jalen Beeks. At 443 feet, the hit was the longest home run by a Pirates player this season. It left Suwinski’s bat at 112.4 mph — the hardest hit of the day and tied for the second hardest by the Pirates all season.

“He got that one pretty flush. There aren’t a lot of (home runs) that go up in that area,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who spent seven seasons as the Rays’ hitting coach.

Suwinski’s 12th home run of the season — his total leads MLB rookies — gave the Pirates an MLB-leading 24 by rookies. Suwinski is batting only .214, but his next time at the plate, the Rays walked him intentionally with first base open.

But the 23-year-old left fielder, who came to the majors in April directly from Double-A Altoona, wasn’t done.

When Rays designated hitter Luke Raley opened the bottom of the sixth with a foul fly to left field, Suwinski didn’t give up on it. He ran across the foul line, reached into the stands (nearly knocking the glasses off the face of a fan in the first row while falling on top of him) and made the catch.

“That’s a tough corner down there,” Shelton said.

Brubaker was the beneficiary of Suwinski’s feats on both sides of the ball and worked through six innings. He allowed nine hits — but no walks — while striking out six.

Brubaker left the game with a 5-3 lead, but Paredes homered in the eighth off De Jong, who worked through 30 pitches after throwing 43 on Wednesday.

The Pirates trailed 2-0 in the first inning but tied it in the third.

Brubaker gave up runs in the first inning for the first time in eight starts when the Rays reached base on three singles and a hit batsman.

The Pirates tied it in the third when Diego Castillo homered for the fifth time in the past 11 games. Bryan Reynolds singled with two outs to drive home Michael Perez — only his sixth hit this season with a runner in scoring position.

The Rays took a 3-2 lead in the fifth when Lowe, Randy Arozarena and Ji-Man Choi strung together two doubles and a single.

Because Bednar has been so effective most of the season and Brubaker has assembled four consecutive quality starts with only one victory, the defeat was difficult to accept. But Shelton fielded a lineup with four rookies — Oneil Cruz, Castillo, Suwinski and Madris — and the manager is pleased with their growth.

“We just continue to see these guys grow, continue to see these guys get better and that’s an important thing,” he said. “There are going to be bumps. There are going to be good things. We saw some good things out of the young kids.”