Pittsburgh 6, Minnesota 2
When: 2:10 PM ET, Sunday, April 25, 2021
Where: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Temperature:
44°
Umpires:
Home -
Scott Barry, 1B -
Dan Iassogna, 2B -
Jose Navas, 3B -
Jeremie Rehak
Attendance:
9396
By Field Level Media
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
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
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 |
Team Stats Summary
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 |