Gregory Polanco homered and had three hits and Bryan Reynolds added a pair of RBI doubles to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the rubber match of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Adam Frazier went 3-for-5 with one RBI and run scored for Pittsburgh, which won its third consecutive road series while improving to 10-5 over its last 15 games.
Clay Holmes (1-0), the second of five pitchers for the Pirates, picked up the win with 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief.
Nelson Cruz moved into a tie for the American League lead with his seventh home run of the season, Luis Arraez went 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored and Byron Buxton had an RBI single for Minnesota, which lost for the 11th time in its last 13 games.
Pittsburgh jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with three straight hits to open the game against Twins starter Matt Shoemaker (1-2). Frazier led off with a line drive single to right, took second on a single by Phillip Evans and scored on a bloop double down the left-field line by Reynolds. Colin Moran then drove in Evans with a sacrifice fly.
Minnesota cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the first when Buxton lined a single to left to drive in Arraez, who had singled and advanced to third on a single by Josh Donaldson.
The Pirates extended their lead to 5-1 in the seventh when they parlayed five hits into three runs. Kevin Newman and Frazier each had RBI singles while Reynolds added an RBI double.
After Polanco made it 6-1 in the eighth with his third home run of the season, a 419-foot drive into the bleachers in right-center, Cruz led off the bottom half of the inning with a homer to cut it to 6-2. It was the 424th home run of Cruz's career, moving him into a tie for 52nd place on the all-time list with Edwin Encarnacion.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Minnesota | |
Wil Crowe | Player | Matt Shoemaker |
No Decision | W/L | Loss |
4.0 | IP | 5.1 |
3 | Strikeouts | 2 |
4 | Hits | 6 |
2.25 | ERA | 3.38 |
Pittsburgh | Minnesota | |
Gregory Polanco | Player | Luis Arraez |
3 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
1 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 2 |
.750 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 12 | 1 | 18 | .324 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Minnesota | 7 | 1 | 10 | .212 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |