Back-to-back home runs add some pop to win in home opener

driving a Josh Collmenter changeup into the Braves bullpen in left-center field. Francisco Cervelli quickly followed with a home run to left. It was the team’s first two home runs. The Pirates scored in just one of 21 innings against the Red Sox and hit .173 with only three runs and two extrabase hits, both doubles. Of course, they were facing Rick Porcello and Chris Sale at Fenway Park, not Collmenter.

“That’s kind of sexy, right?” Freese said of the back-to-back jacks. “Especially with me and Cervi, who don’t hit a lot of homers. It was fun today. It was fun seeing the guys whack it around a little bit.”

Cervelli hit one home run all of last season. In the Pirates’ 152nd game. In his 310th at-bat. This home run came a little quicker, much to Cervelli’s delight. In his 11th at-bat. It is shaping up as some weekend for him. Tonight is “Francisco Cervelli That’s Amore Singing Bobblehead” night at the ballpark. Who doesn’t want one of those?

“I just tried to hit the ball,” Cervelli said of his home run. “I worked hard in the offseason. I feel healthy. I can handle the barrel the way I want. That’s the important thing. The other stuff is going to come. A lot of good things are going to happen this year. If I can hit 40 home runs, I’m happy to.”

Cervelli was kidding. Ten home runs from him would be just fine. Twenty from Freese would work, too. He hit 13 last season. Somebody has to replace the 21 home runs in 318 at-bats last season that Jung Ho Kang left in the wreckage of his December crash from his third DUI in South Korea. Freese figures to get most of the starts at Kang’s third-base position.

“If I start trying to hit the ball like Jung Ho, I’m going to get myself in trouble,” Freese said. “I just need to be me. If I can play how I know I can play and do it consistently, I think we’ll be just fine over there.

“We love home runs. They’re great. They can get you back in a game. They can separate you from the other team. But they’re not a necessity. I like the way we run the bases. The way we hit with guys in scoring position. The way we start off innings. The way we battle at the dish with two outs. I think that’s the main concern.”

I get that. Small ball has its place. Starling Marte, batting leadoff for the first time this season, had two, two-out, run-scoring singles against the Braves. Andrew McCutchen, who went 0 for 9 in Boston, had three singles and drove in a run. But the two home runs were the best part of the win for me, at least after the strong, sixinning start by Ivan Nova. They helped cover for a rotten day by Gregory Polanco, who went 0 for 5, left eight runners on base and, to boot, literally, dropped a routine fly ball in the fifth inning leading to the only run off of Nova.

“Any long ball is important,” Jordy Mercer said. “But I don’t know if we’re a home-run-hitting team. If we all go up there and try to take Jung Ho’s part, I think we might get ourselves in a little bit of trouble. Everybody just has to chip in. Everybody has to scratch and claw. If we keep getting on base, things are going to happen.”

Added Cervelli: “The important thing is to score runs. If we can do what we did today — make the starting guy be at 80 pitches in four innings — we’re going to do a lot of damage.” I really do get it. But I’m convinced the damage is accelerated when a couple of the pitches end up over the fence.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.