 gave them 14 runs in the ninth inning this season. The Pirates have scored 62% of their runs this season in the seventh inning or later.''I said at the beginning, we've continued to play hard and come up short,'' Shelton said. ''You continue to grind. But to come out on the winning end of a game like that, against a team like that, it feels a lot better to smile.'' Colin Moran started off the ninth with a flare to left field off Rogers. Tucker came on to pinch run and raced to third on a double by Reynolds. The Pirates, who came into the game hitting a National League-worst .186 as a team, won for just the third time in 13 games when Newman raced one out of reach of a drawn-in infield.Twins manager Rocco Baldelli defended Taylor and a bullpen that entered the day with the most saves in the majors.''I don't think it was a whole lot about execution,'' Baldelli said. ''It wasn't like balls were getting whacked all around. He made pretty good pitches, things just happen sometimes in this game and there's not a lot we can do about it.'' Miguel Sano hit a three-run home run and Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario also went deep for the Twins, who saw their six-game winning streak snapped. Minnesota missed a chance to put together the best start in franchise history, falling to 10-3, a start matched by the club five previous times, the last in 2001.Minnesota starter Kenta Maeda surrendered Gregory Polanco's first home run in 14 months in the third inning - a 446-foot shot that bounced into the Allegheny River - but little else over six innings of work. Maeda struck out four and walked three while retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced. He exited with a two-run lead before things slipped away late following an uncharacteristically sloppy performance by the Twins' bullpen.ROLLING THE ''DYS''The Pirates drew within a run in the eighth when veteran center fielder Jarrod Dyson singled leading off the inning. The 35-year-old promptly stole second and third before coming home on a routine grounder by Phil Evans.''To get us closer is huge,'' Newman said. ''It definitely sparked us. It just puts us that much closer and within reach.'' FIRST THINGS FIRSTPittsburgh's Sam Howard (1-0) picked up his first victory with the franchise after pitching 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Rookie JT Brubaker allowed three runs in three innings in his first major league start.TRAINER'S ROOMTwins: P Jake Odorizzi is scheduled to make his first start of the season on Saturday against the Royals. Odorizzi, an All-Star in 2019, missed the first two weeks due to a right intercostal strain.UP NEXTTwins: Rookie Devin Smeltzer (1-0, 11.57 ERA) gets the nod on Friday when Minnesota begins a three-game series at Kansas City.Pirates: Chad Kuhl will make his first start since June 26, 2018 when the Pirates open a three-game series with Detroit on Friday. Kuhl underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2018.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Pirates turn to rookie Brubaker vs. red-hot TwinsRight-hander JT Brubaker will make his major league starting debut on Thursday afternoon and try to help the host Pittsburgh Pirates snap a seven-game losing streak against the red-hot Minnesota Twins.The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Brubaker (0-0, 0.00 ERA) is replacing the injured Mitch Keller (oblique) in the rotation and earned the starting nod after two strong relief appearances this season -- blanking the St. Louis Cardinals on three hits over two innings while striking out four, and then limiting the Chicago Cubs to one hit and a walk over three innings last Saturday while striking out three.Now he faces a Twins team that has the best record in the American League (10-2) and has won six in a row."I'm just going to go out there and do the same thing I've been doing on the mound, just throwing competitive pitches and going right after hitters," Brubaker told MLB.com.It will also be the 100th start of Brubaker's professional career. A sixth-round draft choice out of Akron in 2015, he had a 31-28 record and 3.60 ERA in five minor league seasons and was named Pittsburgh's Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2018 after compiling a 2.81 ERA in 28 starts between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis."It will probably be a bit dependent on how he's pitching and how he feels," Pirates manager Derek Shelton told triblive.com when asked how long he expects Brubaker to go. "We are definitely going to need innings (from the bullpen) because of the fact it's not going to be a seven-inning (appearance), unless he can throw seven innings on 45 pitches, which I would sign up for in a heartbeat." Minnesota, off to the best start after 12 games in team history, will start right-hander Kenta Maeda (2-0, 1.64) as it tries for its second consecutive two-game series sweep of the Pirates.Maeda is 2-1 with a 4.42 ERA in three career starts against the Pirates while with the Los Angeles Dodgers, including 1-1 with a 6.30 ERA in two starts at PNC Park. He comes in off a 3-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday at Target Field in Minneapolis, in which he allowed just an infield single and a walk over six innings while striking out six.Maeda won his Minnesota debut in Chicago against the White Sox, 14-2. He has allowed just five hits and two walks over 11 innings while striking out 12 so far."He came over (from the Dodgers in a February trade), and I think during spring training we could see the potential of him," catcher Mitch Garver told MLB.com. "Now that we've kind of gotten into the season, we understand what makes him so good." The Twins opened their eight-game road trip with a 5-2 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday night as right-hander Randy Dobnak, moved into the rotation at the start of the season when All-Star Jake Odorizzi went on the injured list with a back injury, celebrated his homecoming with six shutout innings while allowing three hits.Dobnak grew up about 20 minutes away from PNC Park and estimated he had attended about 150 Pirates games during his lifetime."It was really special for me just to get out there and pitch on the mound that I grew up coming to the games all the time," Dobnak said.--Field Level Media
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