The Pirates overcame a 5 run deficit to win a wild one in the City of Brotherly Love tonight. The 11-7 win featured 7 combined home runs, bullpen implosions, and multiple blown leads. The Pirates have not proven to be a good team, but nights like tonight show that they are an extremely fun team. The Pirates thrived off the backs of their young players in Esmerlyn Valdez and Endy Rodriguez. Watch Jim and I break down the game in further detail here:

Esmerlyn Valdez We Are Not Worthy

Esmerlyn Valdez hit his 4th home run in 4 games tonight, a critical bomb off Aaron Nola to give the Pirates a fighting chance. With his 2 extra base hits and a walk tonight, Valdez is now slugging over .800 and his wRC+ has now climbed over the 200 mark. His walk in the top of the ninth (where he won the closest challenge I’ve ever seen) led to Endy’s big 3 run bomb that put the game to bed. The Magician is carving out a permanent roster spot on the MLB team that will ask some questions of Ben Cherington when Oneil Cruz is healthy and able to play. The Pirates would be a below .500 team at this current point if Esmerlyn was not here to perform his heroics and that is worth major praise for a rookie. He has the ability to make your jaw drop with his effortless power and a reduction in whiff rate could catapult him into being a bona fide star.

The Offense Caps Off an Excellent June

There is a small chance I regret writing about this, but in the month of June the Pirates did not get shut out once and scored 5 or more runs 13 times. Today the Pirates scored 11 runs with a healthy mix of veteran and young player contributions that have formed one of the best lineups in baseball. They hit 3 home runs, reached base 16 times, and have shown an ability to do tons of damage despite striking out 13 times. After tonight, this offense has scored the 3rd most runs, hit the 7th most home runs, and is 3rd in OPS. This is all despite missing Oneil Cruz, Konnor Griffin, and Ryan O’Hearn for significant periods of time and their DH signing being absolutely worthless. They certainly surrendered value on the defensive front, but this is a potentially scary team to face in October. With 2 near aces to man the rotation and an offense that can blitz any team with double-digit runs, an average bullpen fixed at the deadline could prove deadly in November.

Endy Rodriguez is a Hero

Not a single soul who cheered for Pittsburgh was comfortable going into the 9th inning with a 1-run lead. Everyone was having flashbacks to the last time the Phillies trailed in the 9th with Turner/Schwarber/Harper coming up with 3 outs left. Endy Rodriguez ensured that it wouldn’t matter with a 3-run no-doubter off of Pirates legend Chase Shugart. After tonight, Endy is reaching base at a clip over .400, and his OPS sits at .886. He has followed the trend of providing value with his bat as his glove is subpar, but that is an acceptable trade when he is destroying Henry Davis in terms of offensive contributions. He must learn to hit lefties better, as he has struggled against them over the course of his entire career. There is no doubt that he deserves to be starting most days at catcher, and this is such a nice success story considering how he lost 2 whole seasons because of injury.