The Pirates trailed 6-1 in the 7th inning with Shohei Ohtani still on the mound cruising and a five-game losing streak was staring them in the face, but the Pirates offense continued to battle, chased Ohtani from the game and then rallied against the bullpen in the 8th inning to come-from-behind with a wild 9-8 victory. Tyler Callihan hit two home runs, including his massive go-ahead three-run blast in the bottom of the 8th inning. You can watch/listen to Doug and Neil break this one down on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros:

Here’s my three takeaways from this huge win…

This was the Win of the Year for the Pirates

The Pirates have had a couple walkoffs this season, but no huge comebacks like this at home until Wednesday night. Down 6-1 with Ohtani cruising late, the Pirates easily could have lost their fifth straight game and dropped back to .500 again. But they battled like we’ve seen this offense do time and time again. Brandon Lowe had a huge two-RBI double to chase Ohtani from the game and make it 6-3. The Dodgers then had an error that allowed Bryan Reynolds to reach and a run score to make it 6-4. Enter the bottom of the 8th, Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt walks Nick Gonzales and Rafael Flores (making his Pirates debut) and then Tyler Callihan rips his second home run of the season and the game with a huge three-run home run into the right field seats. This was the win of the year so far. The season is back on!

Reynolds walkoff HR in the last homestand was nice, but this win off Ohtani and the Dodgers bullpen one-ups that walkoff game. Just a massive come-from-behind victory. The Pirates went from a five-game losing streak and .500 to a chance to take the series Thursday. After being swept in Atlanta, coming back and using some momentum from this win to take the series over the Dodgers would be a huge moment for the 2026 Pirates team.

OK, Tyler Callihan

I said last week that I was somewhat intrigued by Tyler Callihan and wanted to see more of him with Konnor Griffin on the IL and Oneil Cruz on the IL now too. Well here he is as he got the start in right field in this one and it wasn’t just his first home runs as a Pirates, his two home runs Wednesday were the first two of his career.

Imagine hitting your first big league home run off Ohtani and then winning the game later off the bullpen. What a night for Callihan. Let’s keep playing him and see what we have here. His final line in this win is: 2-for-2 with three runs scored, four RBIs, two home runs and two walks. He’s now slashing .333/.529/1.000. That’ll play! Obviously very small sample size, but lets see what he has and keep playing him while the team is banged up. This was Ben Cherington’s big pick up late in spring so let’s keep seeing him. Don’t bench him Thursday, Donnie.

What Are We Going to Do About this Bullpen?

This bullpen stinks. We all know that, but now even your top three relievers are giving up runs. Tuesday night it was Wilber Dotel getting rocked for six runs with no outs of a 2-2 game. And this game after Jared Jones goes four innings with two runs allowed and hit his pitch count, Carmen Mlodzinski comes in as the “Designated Jared Jones Piggybacker” and he serves up a grand slam after walking two to load the bases. Then the Pirates bats battle back, take the lead and get two huge insurance runs on Spencer Horwitz‘s 9th home run of the season and Gregory Soto comes in and gives up a two-run home run to Ohtani to make it 9-8 before closing the Dodgers out. The Pirates won this game because of offense just outscoring the opposition because the bullpen was up to their usual tricks again. Evan Sisk, who has a 1.27 ERA on the season, came in with bases loaded on Sunday in Atlanta and immediately served up a bases-clearing double to lose 3-2. This bullpen needs an overhaul, but my goodness when Mlodzinski, Dotel, Soto and Sisk are getting hit around, something needs worked on internally. Yes, reinforcements are needed at Triple-A and through trade, but these guys just have to be better too.