The Pirates once again rallied late against the Kansas City Royals to win 4-3 and complete the sweep this weekend at PNC Park. This time it was Rafael Flores providing the late-game heroics with a game-winning two-run bomb to make a 3-2 deficit a 4-3 win in a blink of an eye. The Pirates bullpen game worked again as Carmen Mlodzinski got the win and Mason Montgomery nailed down his 16th save to close the door on the Royals. DiNardo and Neil recapped the sweep on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch or listen here:
Here’s my 3 takeaways from this win and sweep…
The Bucs Love Them Some Amercian League
For the third straight game, the Pirates rallied after being down early to defeat and sweep the Royals out of PNC Park. They are now an absurd 31-14 against the AL. They have three more games at Detroit next weekend to close out the season, but holy smokes what a year against the American League. The AL is having a bit of a down year as the Rangers are leading the AL West with a .500 record and the Guardians have just a .519 winning percentage but are leading the AL Central. I’m not sure if that’s all it is, but the Pirates have been crushing on these AL teams. The only AL teams they don’t have a winning record against are the Rangers, Blue Jays and Yankees (all 1-2) and they’ve now swept the Orioles, Royals, White Sox and Twins.
It’s going to mean nothing because the Pirates aren’t going to the playoffs this season, but it is intriguing to think about where this team would be if they had played in the AL Central all season. Would they have played at a .689 win percentage all season like they have been at 31-14? Let’s see what they do against the Tigers to finish out the season, a team they already beat two-of-three at home earlier this season.
Another Cruz 20-20 Season
Oneil Cruz deposited Michael Wacha‘s hanging curveball into the bullpen for his 20th home run of the season in the 4th inning to tie the game at 1 apiece. That homer clinched his third straight 20-20 season. That’s 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases. All of that in just 93 games this season. He’s done it for the third straight year now. And my goodness let this man stay healthy for a season so we can see 30-30 or 30-40 or 30-50 or 40-50. The possibilities are endless with Cruz. He came back from his broken fingers injury and has picked up right where he left off with no effects from his injury.
Cruz is now slashing .280/.367/.490 and he has six games left to try and surpass his career total in home runs in basically a half season of games. Please let this man stay healthy next season. Looking at you, baseball gods.
Flores is Clutch
There was a lot of talk about the Pirates catching position heading into the 2026 season. Most were still holding out hope for Henry Davis to start producing as the hitter he was drafted for, but I think we know that it’s very unlikely at this point. Joey Bart was traded for a reliever that’s not even here now, Endy Rodriguez flashed some promise again but ended up injured once again as well. That leaves Rafael Flores, who was acquired in the David Bednar trade with the Yankees last season. Not only is Flores balling out, taking advantage of his opportunity to finally show this team something, but the dude has hit some big home runs in a limited time. He’s producing and he’s proving to be clutch. The home run Sunday afternoon came in the 8th inning to turn the Pirates deficit into a 4-3 lead and eventual winner and sweep.
Flores is now slashing .286/.354/.556 with 10 home runs in just 43 games. In case you’re not doing the math at home, that’s a 37.7 pace across 162 games. That .556 slugging percentage is intoxicating. And all this from a catcher. We were worried about the catching position going into this season, but Flores has played himself into the starting catching role. At this point, he’s 100% the starting catcher for next season, eliminating one question mark at one position.
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