Final<\/p>\n
Pirates 6, Twins 5<\/p>\n
Key moment<\/p>\n
PITTSBURGH \u2014 Taylor Rogers\u2019 final pitch of the night clipped far too much of the strike zone and, as a result, he watched as it arced through the sky and disappeared in the left-field stands.<\/p>\n
Rogers wanted the pitch, which Bryan Reynolds clubbed for a two-run walk off home run, more inside than it ended up being.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good hitter,\u201d manager Derek Shelton, who used to manage the Pirates,\u201d said. \u201cI know that because I was here for a long time and saw him do a lot of good things. Taylor just missed his spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The walk-off home run came after the Twins\u2019 (27-31) bullpen had worked four scoreless innings, taking over after a four-inning start from Taj Bradley. An inning earlier, Cody Laweryson, fresh off the injured list, got the Twins out of a situation in which the Pirates (30-28) had a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs with their one-run lead still intact.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially all the bullpen guys doing well, kind of having them throwing as much as they have, to kind of go wreck that, it stinks a little extra,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Starting pitcher performance<\/p>\n
In his second start since returning from the injured list with pectoral inflammation, Bradley said he felt \u201ca little inconsistent.\u201d That played out in the form of consecutive walks in the first inning in which he threw eight straight balls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really have one pitch to pitch consistently with and find the zone with,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI feel like that would have taken me further in the game and had quicker at-bats. I just felt like not one pitch was there where I could strike it consistently back-to-back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both walks came around to score as part of the Pirates\u2019 three-run first inning. They scored one more run off Bradley in the third inning, which came on a mammoth blast from Oneil Cruz. The ball landed in the Allegheny River in right field on the fly and traveled an estimated 450 feet.<\/p>\n
Bradley\u2019s day ended after four innings and 87 pitches, an outing he called \u201clong but short,\u201d because he labored through his start with long innings. This being his second start back, Shelton said the plan going into it was that Bradley was going to be capped around 90 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to ramp it up,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cHe\u2019s just too important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
How the Twins scored<\/p>\n
Kody Clemens kicked off the scoring for the Twins in the first inning, hitting a home run on a 100.3 mile per hour pitch from starting pitcher Jared Jones. It was the fastest pitch any player has homered on so far this season and just the fifth home run from a Twins hitter off a 100+ mph pitch in the Statcast era (since 2015).<\/p>\n
The Twins added another pair of runs in the second inning, tying the game up on a Tristan Gray two-run single. In the third, Trevor Larnach\u2019s two-run home run, the second long ball of the night off Jones, who missed all of last season rehabbing from elbow surgery, put the Twins on top again, a lead they held until the ninth.<\/p>\n
Larnach got ahold of a fastball from Jones, hitting it quite literally out of the ballpark. The ball bounced before splashing down in the water beyond the right field wall. It was the 86th time a ball had landed in the river and Larnach was the 54th player to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing Jared, he was going to be amped up,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cIt was 101, 102. I thought we did a good job. Kody clipped him early and then we just continued to have really good at-bats off him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Twins had just two hits in the game after the third inning.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Bailey Ober (6-2, 3.92 ERA) will take the ball on Saturday opposed by Mitch Keller (5-2, 3.64 ERA). The game is scheduled to begin at 3:05 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Final Pirates 6, Twins 5 Key moment PITTSBURGH \u2014 Taylor Rogers\u2019 final pitch of the night clipped far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16736,1423,73,75,74,726],"class_list":["post-205933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}