The Pirates kept the momentum going through the off day with a blowout 12-4 win over the Braves as Ryan O’Hearn‘s historic 10-RBI game led the Bucs to an easy victory. O’Hearn belted three home runs and broke the Pirates single-game RBI record as he drove in 10 and the Pirates finally won a Paul Skenes start after nine straight losses. With the win the Pirates move to 47-45 for their third straight win. DiNardo and Tyler recapped this pummeling of the Braves on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch/listen here:

Here’s my 3 takeaways from this drubbing of the Braves…

Have a Game, Ryan O’Hearn

Leading up to the game the talk on our Discord and Twitter was how can the Pirates replace Konnor Griffin‘s bat…well Ryan O’Hearn clubbing three home runs and driving in 10 runs is a start! O’Hearn hit not one, not two, but three home runs for his 14th, 15th and 16th homers on the season. His RBI total for the year jumped to 61 and he now has 100 home runs for his MLB career. When he hits his next home run, he’ll tie his career high of 17 home runs which he hit last season between the Orioles and Padres.

O’Hearn started the game off with a grand slam off Braves starter Hurston Waldrep in the 1st inning to give the Bucs a 4-1 lead. He then hit a three-run homer in his very next at-bat in the 3rd inning off Waldrep. Then belted home run number three with two runners on off reliever Connor Thomas in the 6th inning for his third home run of the game and his 10th RBI. His last home run and three RBIs broke the Pirates all-time record for most RBIs in a game which was previously held by Johnny Rizzo who had 9 RBIs back on May 30, 1939. Andrew McCutchen most recently had 8 RBIs in 2017 and then Jason Bay recorded 8 RBIs in a game twice in 2004 and 2003.

And check out this stat from the Pirates duo of O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe:

Just a crazy stat that only compares to Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla. And O’Hearn and Lowe have the rest of this homestand to add to those RBI totals. This was a fun one and made us all forget about the absence of Griffin’s bat for one game at least. What a professional hitter. What a dude. Have a game, Mr. O’Hearn.

We Won a Paul Skenes Start

The Pirates finally won a Skenes start in this 12-4 victory. They were 0-9 in the last nine Skenes starts, but that finally ended Tuesday night. The Pirates scored 12 runs to help make that happen (thanks Ryan), but Skenes did look better going six innings with just two runs allowed and four strikeouts. He did give up eight hits, but the defense helped him out a couple times and he was able to work around most of the hits to limit the damage. I thought the outing wasn’t vintage Skenes, but it definitely was a step in the right direction. Skenes averaged 97.1 mph on his four-seam fastball and ran it up throwing 98 mph early. That was the key for me and a good sign as his velocity had been dropping until this start. His command was also much better and that helped him be more efficient and keep traffic off the bases when hits would fall in. He walked just one batter in six innings. I still think he could benefit with some built-in rest around the All-Star break, but it was a good outing from Paul. His ERA now sits at 3.58.

This Team Keeps Showing Up and Performing at Every Road Block

This Pirates team has hit some road blocks this season. First, there was Ryan O’Hearn’s injury then Spencer Horwitz then Paul Skenes being human and not being able to win any of his starts, then Oneil Cruz‘s injury, Mitch Keller‘s drop off a cliff, the bullpen blowing saves left and right and now Konnor Griffin’s broken finger. It’s been one thing after another and we’ve all saved “season’s over!” But at every turn, this team keep responding and hanging around. This team hasn’t been more than one game under .500 since the 1-3 start to the season. They’re hanging around and currently two games over .500. It’s not great, but there were plenty of times this team could have checked out and watched things go south in a hurry, but it hasn’t happened.

This Griffin news early Tuesday of his broken finger and out at least a month was not good news to receive and the Pirates come right out and blast the Braves while O’Hearn breaks the RBI record. This offense has been nothing short of incredible and we haven’t even seen them all at full strength and together in about two months. Word is Ben Cherington is planning to buy at the trade deadline and I don’t fault him in that. While I don’t this team is great or a contender for the division or World Series appearance, I think they deserve for the team to add at the deadline and see what they can do. Chip and a chair, try and get into the postseason and see what you can do if you make it. This team certainly has talent and they haven’t put it all together by any means, but they also haven’t fallen apart with the All-Star break approaching. I’m impressed by all the bouncing back they’ve done after losing the players they have at times.