September 16 – Isiah Kiner-Falefa went 3 for 5 with two runs and an RBI to help the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Kansas City Royals 4–3 on Sunday.
Pirates starter Jared Jones went four innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits while striking out five and giving up three or four bad balls. The Pittsburgh bullpen allowed only two hits in five scoreless innings as the Pirates (71-78) snapped a two-game losing streak.
Brady Singer (9-11) pitched five innings, allowing four runs, six hits, six strikeouts and four walks for Kansas City. Michael Garcia went 2-for-4 with a run and Michael Massie had two hits to end the Royals’ two-game winning streak (82-68).
Kansas City holds the second wild-card spot in the American League, two games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the battle for the top spot.
Pittsburgh started the scoring in the first when Bryan Reynolds hit an RBI double after Kina-Falefa’s first single.
Kansas City got on base in the middle of the second when Massey drove in base, then Paul DeJong singled and Adam Frazier loaded the bases. Yuli Gurriel then scored on the tying sacrifice fly to give Massey the lead.
Both teams were tied in the first half of the fourth quarter and Gurriel and Garcia hit consecutive doubles to help the Royals take a 2–1 lead.
Nick Gonzalez tied the game again for Pittsburgh on an RBI grounder in the fourth.
Carmen Mlodzinski (3-5) replaced Jones in the fifth with a brilliant inning.
Billy Cook started the fifth inning with a single. After the second pitch, Cook took the lead on a Keana Falefa single to center field. Singer then struck out Reynolds, then walked O’Neil Cruz and struck out Andrew McCutchen.
After giving up a walk to Joey Bart, Singer gave up a walk to Rowdy Tellez, his third in four at-bats, putting the Pirates ahead 4–4.
With Colin Holderman reaching in the top of the sixth inning, Bobby Witt Jr. loaded the bases, cutting Kansas City’s deficit to 4–3.
In the top of the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman hit a grounder off Witt, striking out Salvador Pérez and striking out Robbie Grossman and earning his ninth save of the year.
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