Kevin Newman's pinch-hit two-run single in the ninth inning Thursday lifted the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-5 win over the visiting Minnesota Twins.
Trailing 5-4, Pittsburgh opened the ninth against Minnesota closer Taylor Rogers (1-1) with Colin Moran's single to left. Cole Tucker pinch ran. Bryan Reynolds doubled down the line in left, setting up Newman's one-out hit up the middle as the Pirates snapped a seven-game losing streak.
Gregory Polanco added a three-run homer for the Pirates, who avoided being swept in a four-game, home-and-home series with Minnesota.
The Twins, who had won six in a row, got all their runs via homers -- a three-run shot by Miguel Sano and solo shots by Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario.
J.T. Brubaker, making his first big league start and third career appearance, lasted three innings for the Pirates, giving up three runs and four hits, with two walks and two strikeouts.
Sam Howard (1-0) gave up one hit and struck out one in 1 1/3 innings of relief.
Twins starter Kenta Maeda pitched six innings, allowing three runs and three hits, with four strikeouts and a walk.
In the first, Jorge Polanco dropped a one-out single in shallow right. An out and a Polanco steal of second later, Rosario walked. Sano followed with a line-drive homer to left, his third, for a 3-0 Twins lead.
The Pirates answered in the second. Moran led off with a single off Sano's outstretched glove at first. Reynolds followed with a single to right, setting up Polanco's first homer, a 446-foot blast to right-center that went into the Allegheny River on one bounce and tied it 3-3.
Against Pittsburgh reliever Cody Ponce, Buxton hit a two-out solo homer to center, his first, to push Minnesota to a 4-3 lead.
It was Rosario's turn in the fifth. His two-run shot, his third homer, just cleared the fence in right to make it 5-3.
Pittsburgh got one back in the eighth. Reliever Sergio Romo walked Jarrod Dyson. Dyson stole second and, an out later, stole third. He came home on Phillip Evans' groundout to close it to 5-4.
--Field Level Media
