PITTSBURGH — Valdez homers again, and at this point that’s stopped being a surprise. Esmerlyn Valdez hit his third home run of the day Saturday, and the Pirates edged the NL Central-leading Brewers 3-2 to complete a doubleheader sweep — one that started with the rookie right fielder authoring one of the wildest afternoons any 22-year-old has had in a Pittsburgh uniform in years.
Two games. Three homers. Eight RBIs. A first career grand slam. If you’re a Pirates fan who’s spent this season looking for a reason to watch, Saturday handed you one, twice.
The Opener: Valdez’s Grand Slam Erases a Three-Run Deficit
Game 1 belonged to Valdez almost entirely. He drove in a run with a first-inning single, launched a two-out solo shot to center in the third to put Pittsburgh ahead 3-2, and then, with the Brewers up 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh, turned on an Aaron Ashby pitch and drove it out for his first career grand slam. Just like that, 7-6 Pirates — and it stuck.
Milwaukee didn’t go quietly. Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick both hit two-run homers, and the Brewers loaded the bases in the ninth before Gregory Soto got Andrew Vaughn to bounce into a game-ending double play for his 12th save. Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft, a Tuesday All-Star selection, had one of his rougher outings of the year — five runs in five innings — but Carmen Mlodzinski held the Brewers to one run over three relief innings to keep it in reach for Valdez’s heroics.
By the time it was over, Valdez had driven in six runs on his own and denied Milwaukee, which came in with a 7½-game division lead, its 60th win of the season.
Valdez Homers Again as Pirates Beat Brewers 3-2 in the Nightcap
If the opener was chaos, Game 2 was a tighter, more traditional pitcher’s battle — right up until Valdez put his fingerprints on it one more time. His two-run homer in the fourth inning opened the scoring, his 10th home run in just his first 27 career games. That’s not a typo. Ten homers, 26 RBIs, in under a month of big-league baseball.
Milwaukee answered. Brice Turang ripped a two-run double in the fifth to tie it at 2-2, and for a few innings it looked like the Brewers might salvage a split. They didn’t get the chance. Bryan Reynolds singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth off rookie left-hander Shane Drohan (4-3), who’d otherwise pitched well — three runs, five hits, six strikeouts, zero walks over 6⅓ innings. Yohan Ramirez (6-2) followed with a scoreless sixth to nail things down.
That’s 3-2, final. Pirates sweep.
A Rookie Season That’s Turning Into Something Else
Valdez isn’t a September call-up riding a hot week. He entered Saturday hitting .403 over his previous 17 games, and by the time both games were in the books he’d pushed his season line into rare territory for a player with fewer than 30 career appearances. Ten home runs and 26 RBIs in 27 games is the kind of pace that gets a rookie’s name mentioned in places it usually isn’t this early — not just Pirates message boards, but league-wide conversations about who the best first-month debut of the year actually belongs to.
It helps that he’s doing it against good competition. Milwaukee didn’t get to a 7½-game division lead by accident, and Saturday’s doubleheader wasn’t a light workload for a shaky bullpen — it was two full games against a team that’s been the class of the NL Central for months. Valdez treated both like batting practice.
Why This Sweep Stings for Milwaukee
The Brewers came to Pittsburgh chasing win No. 60 and left with their second loss in seven games instead. Ashby, Sproat and Drohan all took the mound with a chance to slow Valdez down, and none of them did. Bauers and Frelick both connected, Turang and William Contreras drove in runs — Milwaukee’s lineup didn’t disappear, it just ran into a rookie having the kind of day that doesn’t come along often.
For a team built to cruise through the division, a sweep at the hands of a sub-.500 club is the sort of result that gets flagged, fairly or not, as the first wobble of the second half.
What Comes Next
Both clubs head toward the All-Star break with plenty to sort through — Milwaukee trying to shake off a rare bad weekend, Pittsburgh trying to figure out how much of its second half should now run through a 22-year-old who didn’t have a big-league at-bat two months ago.
Whatever’s next for either team, Saturday belonged to one player. Valdez homers again, and until somebody figures out how to stop him, that’s going to keep being the headline.
