Missed Opportunities Sink Pirates in 5-1 Loss to Twins

Recap

The Pittsburgh Pirates had their chances against the Minnesota Twins and right-hander Pablo López, but they couldn’t capitalize and were defeated 5-1 at Target Field on Friday night.

The Pirates had at least one runner in scoring position against López in five of the six innings he pitched, but they went 0 for 10 against him in those situations and left eight men on base. For the night, the Pirates went 1 for 14 with RISP and left 11 runners on base.

López finished his outing with six-shutout innings and struck out seven Pirates’ batters. He allowed six hits and walked two.

Three of those six hits allowed were to Endy Rodriguez, who finished the game 3 for 4 with a double.

Andre Jackson made his second-career start for the Pirates and allowed two runs in 4.1 innings pitched while striking out a career-high six batters.

The two runs came on one swing, when Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run home run to left field in the fourth to put the Twins up 2-0.

The Twins struck for three runs against the Pirates’ bullpen.

Key Moment 

After Bryan Reynolds made it a 3-1 game, the Pirates had runners on the corners with nobody out. Ke’Bryan Hayes popped out before Jack Suwinski and Henry Davis struck out as the Pirates couldn’t do any further damage.

Star of the Game

After another scoreless outing, López has not allowed a run in his last three outings and has only allowed one run in the month of August in 25.0 innings pitched (0.36 ERA).

Stat to Know

Prior to Reynolds’ RBI single in the seventh inning, the Pirates had only nine hits in their last 52 at-bats (.173 batting average) with runners in scoring position.

Noteworthy

• This was Rodriguez’s second-career, three-hit game. He went 3 for 4 with a home run against the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 6.
• Like Rodriguez, Reynolds finished the game with three hits, going 3 for 5 with three singles and he collected his 60th RBI of the season.
• The Pirates activated Ji Hwan Bae off the injured list and sent Jared Triolo back to Triple-A Indianapolis.
• In his first game back, Bae finished 2 for 4 with a double and a walk from the leadoff spot and manned center field.
• Right-handed reliever Dauri Moreta will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis. He’s been on the IL since Aug. 4 with lower back soreness.

Up Next

The second game of this weekend series between the Pirates (54-68) and Twins (64-59) will take place on Saturday night. It’ll be a battle of the 2023 All-Stars as Mitch Keller (9-8, 4.27 ERA) faces off with veteran righty Sonny Gray (6-5, 3.04 ERA). First pitch: 7:10 ET.