Pittsburgh Pirates Have Historically Powerful Month of June

In the month of June the Pittsburgh Pirates offense exploded with power, putting together a historically powerful month for the franchise

The month of June was a wild one for the Pittsburgh Pirates. June started with the Pirates completing a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. After taking two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Pirates then went on to lose 11 of their next 12 games.

After righting the ship the Pittsburgh Pirates would then lose five games in a row, with all five losses coming by two runs or less. The Pirates then finished the month off by winning back-to-back wild games by a score of 8-7.

While the Pirates went just 10-18 in the month of June, they still made history in the month. June proved to be one of the best months in program history when it came to hitting home runs. They also made MLB history in more ways than one with home runs in June.

The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the month of June with 44 home runs. This fell just short of the franchise’s single month record for home runs hit, which came in August 2007 when the Pirates hit 45 home runs.

June also saw three different Pirate players have a three home run game. These three layers Jack Suwinski, Bryan Reynolds, and Michael Perez. This made the 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates the first team in MLB history to have three different players have a three home run game in the same month.

Reynolds and Perez’s three home run games came in back-to-back days in the final two days of the month. This marked just the second time in MLB history a team has had back-to-back games with players hitting three home runs, joining the 2020 Atlanta Braves who saw Marcel Ozuna and Adam Duvall do the trick on September 1st and 2nd.

Suwinski made both franchise and MLB history with his three home run game. Suwinski joined Andrew McCutchen as the only rookies in franchise history to have a three home run game. The third home run of the day for Suwinski as a walk off home run, making him the first rookie in MLB history to have three home runs in a game with one of the home runs being a walk off blast.

Perez also made some franchise history. Believe it or not, Perez became the first catcher in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game. A Perez three home run game is certainly one no one had on their bingo card back in spring training.