Isiah Kiner-Falefa had three hits, including a key single in the fifth inning, as the Pittsburgh Pirates avoided losing all three games to the Kansas City Royals with a 4-3 win on Sunday.
Billy Cook started the fifth inning with a single to left field and then scored from first base on a hit and run when Kiner-Falefa hit a ball to center field past a diving Bobby Witt Jr. at shortstop, putting the Pirates ahead 3-2. Kiner-Falefa also got singles in the first and sixth innings.
“Billy never hesitates. He never breaks stride,” said Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton. “We get a run on a groundball to center field just because of the fact of his awareness. Outstanding.”
Kansas City’s Brady Singer (9-11) gave up four runs on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts over five innings. Later, he walked Rowdy Tellez with the bases loaded, which made the Pirates’ lead 4-2.
“In the fifth, (Singer) just kind of lost command a little bit there,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro. “Unlike him. But his stuff was fine, just his command was a little bit off.”
Carmen Mlodzinski (3-5) pitched a perfect fifth inning in relief of Pirates starter Jared Jones, who allowed two runs and six hits in the first four innings. Aroldis Chapman struck out one in a perfect ninth inning for his ninth save.
The Royals, who are four games behind first-place Cleveland in the AL Central, had the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth inning. Colin Holderman walked Witt Jr. to bring in a run, but Dennis Santana came in to get Salvador Perez to fly out and limit the damage.
“We needed to capitalize more,” Quatraro said. “We put a lot of pressure on them. We drove up the pitch count early. We had baserunners in several innings and just couldn’t come up with the big hit to really take the lead or break it open.”
Bryan Reynolds gave the Pirates an early lead with a double into the left-field corner after Kiner-Falefa got a base hit to start the game.
