Isiah Kiner-Falefa finished 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, helping lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-3 win over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Pirates starter Jared Jones went four innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits while striking out five and walking three. The Pittsburgh bullpen allowed just two hits over five scoreless innings as the Pirates (71-78) snapped a two-game skid.
Brady Singer (9-11) pitched five innings of four-run, six-hit ball, striking out six and walking four for Kansas City. Maikel Garcia went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Michael Massey also had two hits, as the Royals (82-68), who had their two-game winning streak snapped.
Kansas City is in possession of the American League’s second wild-card berth, and stands two games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the battle for the top spot.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, as Kiner-Falefa’s leadoff single was followed by Bryan Reynolds’ RBI double.
Kansas City loaded the bases in the top of the second as Massey led off with a walk, before Paul DeJong’s single and Adam Frazier’s base on balls. Yuli Gurriel then drove in Massey with a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Still tied at one in the top of the fourth, Gurriel and Garcia hit consecutive one-out doubles to push the Royals ahead, 2-1.
Nick Gonzales tied the score again for Pittsburgh with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the fourth.
Carmen Mlodzinski (3-5) replaced Jones for the top of the fifth, throwing a perfect inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, Billy Cook led off with a single. Taking off for second with the pitch, Cook then scored the go-ahead run on Kiner-Falefa’s single to center field. Singer then struck out Reynolds, before walking Oneil Cruz and striking out Andrew McCutchen.
After walking Joey Bart to load the bases, Singer issued his third walk in four batters to Rowdy Tellez, giving the Pirates a 4-2 advantage.
With Colin Holderman pitching the top of the sixth, Bobby Witt Jr. drew a bases-loaded walk to trim Kansas City’s deficit to 4-3.
In the top of the ninth, Aroldis Chapman retired Witt on a grounder, struck out Salvador Perez and got Robbie Grossman to ground out for his ninth save of the year.
–Field Level Media
