Zach Short drove in three runs with a double and a single Wednesday as the visiting Detroit Tigers held on to defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3 for a split of a two-game series.
Riley Greene and Jake Rogers hit solo home runs and Javier Baez had an RBI single for the Tigers, who entered on a run of six losses in their previous seven games.
Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez (7-5) pitched six innings, allowing two runs and seven hits, with five strikeouts and one walk. The outing came one day after Rodriguez declined a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After Tigers reliever Alex Lange walked in a run in the ninth, Tyler Holton came in and recorded his first save.
Andrew McCutchen had an RBI single and Ke’Bryan Hayes had a sacrifice fly RBI for the Pirates, who had won three in a row and four of the previous five.
Pittsburgh starter Osvaldo Bido (2-2) gave up four runs and four hits in three-plus innings, with three strikeouts and one walk.
With one out in the first, Greene hit his ninth homer, to right-center, for a 1-0 Detroit lead.
Pittsburgh tied it in the bottom of the first. Bryan Reynolds singled to right and went to third on McCutchen’s double to right. Henry Davis walked to load the bases and Reynolds scored on Hayes’ sacrifice fly to right.
The Tigers moved back in front with a three-run fourth. Kerry Carpenter walked, Matt Vierling was hit by a pitch and Baez singled to left to drive in Carpenter for a 2-1 lead, chasing Bido for Ryan Borucki.
Nick Maton’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners up. Short, pinch-hitting, singled to left, bringing home Vierling and Baez for a 4-1 edge.
Pittsburgh cut that lead in half in the fifth. Alika Williams reached on an infield single and went to second on Jason Delay’s groundout. After Connor Joe fouled out, Williams went to third on Reynolds’ infield base hit. McCutchen drove in Williams with a bloop single to right to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Against Pirated right-hander Dauri Moreta in the sixth, Vierling doubled to left. Baez and Maton grounded out before Short doubled to left to score Vierling and increase the lead to 5-2.
Rogers led off the eighth with a pinch-hit homer to left, his 13th, to make it 6-2.
–Field Level Media