DENVER -- The Pirates completed their longest road trip in 17 years on Sunday at Coors Field, and they did it with an 8-3 victory over the Rockies that is more significant than it may appear on the surface.

Pittsburgh opened the 12-game trip by splitting two games in Cincinnati, taking two of three from the NL Central-leading Brewers and then winning the first two games of their series in Miami before the Marlins beat them in walk-off fashion on consecutive days. 

Then came Denver, and two consecutive losses in which the Pirates were outscored, 15-2. A loss Sunday would send Pittsburgh into the All-Star break with five straight defeats and a sour taste leaving Coors. But the Bucs were resilient. They made sure that didn’t happen.

Bryse Wilson was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis to make a spot start and was solid for 3 1/3 innings before the Pirates got 5 2/3 strong frames from the bullpen. Daniel Vogelbach, Jake Marisnick, Michael Chavis and Kevin Newman all came up big at the plate after Pittsburgh’s lineup was shut out Saturday.

But one plate appearance served as a microcosm for the odyssey that was the Pirates’ road trip to close out the season’s first half. In the ninth inning, with Pittsburgh leading, 5-3, Oneil Cruz came to the plate with runners at the corners and two outs.

Cruz was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts on the day, and he was in a 2-for-18 slump. On top of that, he made a costly throwing error Saturday that led to a Rockies run in a 2-0 loss.

Cruz’s season with the Pirates, which began when he was called up from Indianapolis on June 20, opened with a bang -- he went 2-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. The 6-foot-7 rookie shortstop flashed his brilliant tools in the days thereafter, launching mammoth home runs with an effortless swing and throwing baseballs to first base with incredible velocity. But he began to struggle, as is inevitable with any player making the jump to the big leagues -- phenom or otherwise.

The Pirates’ road trip followed a similar pattern -- great starting pitching and timely hitting early to produce a four-game winning streak, followed by four straight losses. But neither Cruz, nor the Bucs, were fazed.

Cruz delivered a two-out single to left that brought in an insurance run. Despite the adversity and the disappointment of the last two days, the 23-year-old came through in the clutch.

“For me, my mindset has always been to remain focused,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “My mindset has always been to be a competitor, to be a winner. No matter if I go 0-for-5 or if we lose a whole bunch of games in a row, or whatever the situation may be, good or bad. My mindset is always to remain focused.”

That focus resulted in a big hit for Cruz, and a big win for the Pirates as they break until Friday. The determination to end the trip right, and doing so on the first night of the MLB Draft, provided a notable intersection: A young team building for the future is going to need experiences like Sunday’s at Coors Field if they want to arrive at their desired destination, and the newest piece to the puzzle was put in place in Los Angeles as the Pirates made prep second baseman Termarr Johnson the fourth overall pick.

“I give our group a ton of credit, it was a total team victory,” manager Derek Shelton said. “ … Not having played well in the first two games here -- because we played well in Miami and then we got walked-off the last two nights there in extra innings -- so yeah, I think it’s really important for the group to go into the break feeling good about themselves.”

Cruz, Shelton said, has been undergoing a “trial by fire” as he adjusts to the Majors, particularly with all the left-handed pitching he’s been seeing lately. But Shelton also added that it makes him “smile for a young kid” when he thinks about how Cruz set aside his four strikeouts and delivered big late.

It’s just another example of the learning process, one that Cruz and the Pirates continue to navigate as they look toward the future.

“Baseball is a really hard sport,” Cruz said. “Sometimes people forget how challenging it can be when you get to the big leagues. This is baseball. It’s the game that I love, the game that I know. Remaining focused, keeping my composure, being able to help the team with that last hit, I think that’s what it’s all about.”