Brandon Lowe doubled, tripled and drove in a team-high four runs on Saturday as the Pirates rolled past the Giants 13-3.
Lowe also walked and added a sacrifice fly, giving Pittsburgh production in every part of the game. He drew a one-out walk in the first inning, then put the Pirates on the board in the fifth with a sacrifice fly that brought home Joey Bart for the game’s first run. In the seventh, Lowe turned a big inning into a rout with a two-run triple, and he capped his night with an RBI double in the ninth.
It was his third game of the year with at least four RBIs, a strong sign of how quickly he has become a central bat in the Pittsburgh lineup. The Pirates acquired Lowe in a three-team trade back in December, and he has been one of their most productive hitters since then. He entered Saturday hitting.269/.368/.585 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs in 34 games, while leading the club in doubles, homers, slugging percentage and OPS.
The tension for Pittsburgh is no longer whether Lowe can provide impact. It is how much more damage he can keep doing if he stays on this pace, because the numbers already show a middle-of-the-order hitter who is driving the offense more often than anyone else on the roster.
For the Pirates, Saturday was the kind of game that turns a trade from a winter transaction into a summer answer.
