DENVER -- After the Pirates scored nine runs in the first inning on Friday night against the Rockies at Coors Field, it was easy to assume the game was over before it had even really gotten started.
It was the Pirates’ highest-scoring inning since 2017. The 10 hits they tallied were the most in a single frame in nearly 70 years. A team on a hot streak, firing on all cylinders, having won eight of its previous nine and looking to turn the page toward 2026 after Thursday’s Trade Deadline -- it all seemed to be going the Pirates' way.
But despite the early outburst, the Bucs couldn’t stop the Rockies from slowly chipping away at a lead that felt too large to overcome.
Colorado scored seven runs over the final two innings, including five in the ninth inning off Dennis Santana, capped by Brenton Doyle’s walk-off two-run home run in a demoralizing 17-16 defeat. It was the first time since at least 1901 that the Pirates scored 16 runs and lost.
“It’s something coming to Coors, you know you just gotta keep scoring runs,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “You never have enough here. The way that guys hit and the ball travels, you just gotta keep putting up runs.”
The Pirates turned to Santana for the ninth inning just a day after trading All-Star closer David Bednar to the Yankees, protecting a four-run lead. Santana, who had not allowed more than two runs in an appearance all season, struck out shortstop Ezequiel Tovar to open the inning before giving up a solo home run to catcher Hunter Goodman.
The next three batters reached base, with first baseman Warming Bernabel tripling home a run ahead of second baseman Thairo Estrada’s RBI single to set up Doyle with the tying run at first and still only one out. Doyle deposited an 0-1 slider on the inner half into the left-field seats to end it moments later.
For the Rockies, it’s the first time a team has allowed nine or more runs in the first inning and won since Aug. 23, 2006, when Cleveland erased a nine-run deficit to defeat the Royals, 15-13.
“It just looked like the slider wasn’t biting like normal,” Kelly said of Santana. “Let a couple up over the plate and they got a hold of them.”
All of that soured what was an otherwise season-best offensive showing for the Bucs, who wasted no time jumping on Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela in the first inning.
Spencer Horowitz, Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds each singled to open the evening, with Reynolds’ knock bringing home the first run of the night. Oneil Cruz followed two batters later with his second career grand slam, a Statcast-projected 451-foot blast into the bullpen in right-center field that came off the bat at 114.7 mph.
An Isiah Kiner-Falefa RBI single later in the inning made the score 6-0 and knocked Senzatela out of the game before McCutchen greeted left-hander Carson Palmquist with a three-run homer. The veteran tallied five RBIs, pushing him into sixth on the Pirates' all-time list ahead of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski (857).
Pittsburgh went on to score seven more runs between the fourth and sixth before the game spiraled out of control.
“First inning, to put up nine and then continued to add on,” Kelly said. “When they scored some runs, we scored some runs, which was really good.
“We did some really good things offensively, and that’s the thing we got to take into tomorrow is how well we swung the bats and competed offensively.”
After acquiring eight prospects, including four who rank within the team’s Top 30 list, ahead of Thursday’s Trade Deadline, the Pirates came into Friday focused on making the most of the final two months of the season.
The club saw a benefit in keeping their veterans on expiring contracts around (Kiner-Falefa, Andrew Heaney and Tommy Pham) as a way to help see that through. And with key contributors like Bednar and Ke’Bryan Hayes gone, younger players should have plenty of runway to develop down the stretch.
Pittsburgh has plenty of work to do if it is able to achieve its goal of being competitive in 2026 and beyond, but explosive offensive breakouts such as Friday’s certainly show signs of promise -- despite the final outcome suggesting otherwise.
Even if the result wasn’t a victory that for most of the evening felt all but certain, the Pirates will aim to build off those kinds of performances.
“We just got to find a way to bounce back tomorrow,” Kelly said.