September 28—Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer off Tommy Kahnle in the eighth inning Friday night against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, beating the New York Yankees, 4–2.
Reynolds hit back-to-back home runs and had his seventh career game with multiple homers. It was the left fielder’s second multi-homer game of the season.
Reynolds tied the game 2–2 with a hit into the right-field seats off New York starter Carlos Rodon in the sixth inning, then went deep again in his next at-bat to drive Kahnle’s changeup hit into the outfield to make it 1–0.
Kahnle (0-2) hit his fifth home run in 50 games this season. It was the right-hander’s first home run in 28 games since July 14 at Baltimore.
The Pirates retain the Yankees’ best record in the American League. New York (93-67) remains a full game ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost to the Houston Astros on Friday. If the two teams had tied, the Yankees would have won the tiebreaker, as they have won four of the six games.
Nick Gonzales also hit a home run off Rodon for the Pirates (75-85), who improved to 5-9 in their last 14 games.
Rookie Jared Jones allowed two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings before five relievers allowed one combined hit in the remaining innings.
Carmen Molozinski (5-5) ended the seventh inning by striking out Juan Soto, then Reynolds homered to give the Pirates the lead. Aroldis Chapman went 1-2-3 in the ninth for his 13th save in 18 chances.
After Jones intentionally walked Soto to load the bases, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a two-run single off Joe Wentz in the fifth inning. Wentz walked Jason Dominguez, then he retired Alex Verdugo and Anthony Volpe to keep the score at 2–0.
The Yankees rested Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo after four games of their AL East loss by beating the Baltimore Orioles 10-1 on Thursday.
Rodon gave up two runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings to complete his second regular season win with the Yankees. After winning three games in an injury-plagued first season, Rodon posted a career-high 16 wins.
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