PITTSBURGH (AP) – Kevin Newman’s two-run pinch-single with one out in the ninth inning lifted the Pirates to a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins Thursday. The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for Pittsburgh.
Colin Moran started off the ninth with a flare to left field off Minnesota closer Taylor Rogers (1-1). Tucker came on to pinch run and raced to third on a double by Reynolds. The Pirates, who came into the game hitting a National League-worst .186 as a team, won for just the third time in 13 games when Newman raced one out of reach of a drawn-in infield.
Miguel Sano hit a three-run home run and Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario also went deep for the Twins, who saw their six-game winning streak snapped. Minnesota missed a chance to put together the best start in franchise history, falling to 10-3, a start matched by the club five previous times, the last in 2001.
Minnesota starter Kenta Maeda surrendered Gregory Polanco’s first home run in 14 months in the third inning – a 446-foot shot that bounced into the Allegheny River – but little else over six innings of work. Maeda struck out four and walked three while retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced. He exited with a two-run lead before things slipped away late following an uncharacteristically sloppy performance by the Twins’ bullpen.
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