Pittsburgh Pirates Series Preview: They’re surprisingly not terrible
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The Royals will get their first taste of pitchers batting since 2019 when they take on the Pirates in Pittsburgh for a two-game set. The Pirates were widely expected to be one of the three worst teams in baseball this season, along with the Rangers and Orioles, and they still might be, but they’ve gotten themselves off to a nice start. They started the season 1-6, but have gone 10-5 since then to get to their 11-11 mark, finally reaching .500 after taking two of three from the Twins, so that was helpful to the Royals. Looking up and down their roster, especially without the amazing Ke’Bryan Hayes, it’s hard to see this keeping up, but good for their fans for getting to see a nice stretch.
Pirates 6, Twins 2: Split so far
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It was a good Michael Pineda start for a minute a three-run second was exacerbated by bloop doubles and errors a like but solid contact and back-to-back homers in the middle innings sent the Pittsburgh Pirates en route to a series-evening victory, 6-2 over the Twins on Saturday afternoon.
It was the first time all season Pineda failed to complete five full innings. Despite five strikeouts and just one walk, the Pirates plated five runs (four earned) over the course of Big Mike’s 90 pitches. It started on this weird joint error in the second, after Jorge Polanco’s errant throw and Willians Astudillo’s inability to hang onto the baseball opened the scoring.
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MINNEAPOLIS While all of the Twinsâ big-name power hitters have been quiet thus far in this series against the Pirates, Jake Caveâs bat has finally started to show signs of life.
Cave drove in one of Minnesotaâs two runs on Friday with a solo homer and cracked two more doubles to the opposite field on Saturday against Pittsburgh. With an outfield crunch looming in the near future, this recent production is coming at a good time for Cave, who scored one run and drove in the other while the remainder of the offense combined for only one other hit in the Twinsâ 6-2 loss to the Pirates at Target Field.
That time was 2009. And 2021.
Cahill, whose last victory over the Twins came during Joe Mauer s MVP season a dozen years ago, enjoyed a remarkably nostalgic performance on Saturday. Though he threw only one pitch all day faster than 90 mph, the journeyman Pittsburgh righthander easily retired 18 of the 22 hitters he faced, including the final 13 in a row, to deliver the Pirates a 6-2 victory at Target Field..
Jake Cave doubled home Jorge Polanco, who had walked, in the second inning off Cahill, and then doubled and scored the Twins other run in the eighth off reliever Duane Underwood. But Minnesota only managed one other hit all day, and was held to two or fewer runs for the seventh time in 10 games.
PIRATES COLLECT ANOTHER SERIES OFF MORANâS BAT By Hometown4
Apr 22, 2021 5:06 PM
After their win today, the Pirates have now won 8 of their last 12 games and 3 of their last 4 series after defeating the Detroit Tigers, 4-2, on Wednesday.
Greg Brown has the full recap:
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Colin Moran delivered in the clutch, etching his only hit in the game in the eighth with a go-ahead RBI single.
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Adam Frazier led the team with three hits, raising his batting average to .329. Erik Gonzalez wen 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs, and Bryan Reynolds went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks.
While Mitch Keller earned a no-decision, he had one of his best starts on the season after allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings of work. Duane Underwood struck out 3 Tigers hitters in relief of Keller.