Pirates 5 – Padres 4 (12)

Felipe Rivero showed he was human in blowing a save opportunity in the ninth inning by allowing two runs and struggling mightily with his command in throwing 41 pitches during a rare rocky appearance.

Sean Rodriguez would have Rivero’s back a few innings later and capped off the game with a Hollywood ending.

In the bottom of the 12th inning Rodriguez delivered a walk-off home run in taking a 1-1 pitch off Padres reliever Buddy Baumann over the left-field wall for the thrilling win.

Rodriguez in his first back as a Pirate entered the game in the eighth inning as a defensive substitution for Josh Harrison.

“We were looking for an opportunity to present itself to get him in and play,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said afterwards. “You heard the ovation. He got a lot of love when he came in the clubhouse. You can write those things up. That’s what’s so great about sports.”

The Pirates in taking 2 of 3 from the Padres, improved to 54-57 on the season.