MLB

Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates

· Major League Baseball
Kansas City Royals
82-68, 37-38 Away
Final
3 - 4
Pittsburgh Pirates
71-78, 38-40 Home

Isiah Kiner-Falefa has 3 hits to lead Pirates past Royals 4-3, avoid series sweep

Billy Cook lined a single to left to start the fifth and scored from first on a hit and run when Kiner-Falefa shot one to center past a diving Bobby Witt Jr. at short to put the Pirates ahead 3-2. Kiner-Falefa also singled in the first and sixth innings.

“Billy never hesitates. He never breaks stride,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “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), who gave up four runs on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts in five innings, later walked Rowdy Tellez with the bases loaded to bring the Pittsburgh lead to 4-2.

“In the fifth, (Singer) just kind of lost command a little bit there,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Unlike him. But overall, I thought 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. Aroldis Chapman struck out one in a perfect ninth for his ninth save.

The Royals, four games back of first-place Cleveland in the AL Central, had the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth. Colin Holderman walked Witt Jr. to bring in a run but Dennis Santana entered 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 initial lead on a double into the left-field corner after Kiner-Falefa led off the first with a base hit.

Yuli Gurriel tied it 1-1 on a sacrifice fly in the second after Kansas City started the inning with a Paul DeJong single between two walks.

Tommy Pham opened the third with a triple off the top of the Clemente Wall in right.

Witt Jr. then flew out to Cook, whose throw home from right field beat Pham to preserve the tie. It came from near the line to the right of a No. 21 etched into the outfield grass on Roberto Clemente Day, observed across the majors.

“It was great seeing the 21 and, I think, even more special because it was just out in right field,” said Cook, who wore Clemente's No. 21 along with his Pirates teammates. “He played an amazing right field. To just be able to play the game the right way out there as a tribute to him while wearing the number, really special.”

Gurriel and Maikel Garcia hit consecutive one-out doubles to put the Royals ahead 2-1 the next inning.

Oneil Cruz led off the Pirates’ half of the fourth with a single and scored the tying run when Nick Gonzales grounded to third with the bases loaded.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Seth Lugo (16-8, 2.94 ERA) will start Monday to open a three-game home series against the Tigers. Detroit has not announced a starter.

Pirates: Rookie RHP Paul Skenes (10-2, 2.10) will take the mound Monday to start a four-game series in St. Louis, opposite Cardinals RHP Andre Pallante (6-8, 4.13).

How can I watch Kansas City Royals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates?
  • TV Channel: Royals at Pirates 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
  • Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Pirates: 47.8%
Royals: 52.2%
*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

9th Inning Grossman grounded out to third.
9th Inning Grossman hit for Massey
9th Inning Perez struck out swinging.
9th Inning Witt Jr. grounded out to shortstop.
9th Inning Chapman relieved Bednar
8th Inning Kiner-Falefa struck out swinging.

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/kc.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originKC https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/pit.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originPIT
1 Games Played 1
1 Team Games Played 1
1 Hit By Pitch 0
10 Ground Balls 9
8 Strikeouts 10
3 Runs Batted In 4
0 Sacrifice Hit 0
8 Hits 7
0 Stolen Bases 0
5 Walks 6
0 Catcher Interference 0
3 Runs 4
0 Ground Into Double Play 0
1 Sacrifice Flies 0
33 At Bats 31
0 Home Runs 0
0 Grand Slam Home Runs 0
20 Runners Left On Base 20
1 Triples 0
0 Game Winning RBIs 1
0 Intentional Walks 0
3 Doubles 1
16 Fly Balls 12
0 Caught Stealing 0
174 Pitches 144
0 Games Started 0
1 Pinch At Bats 1
0 Pinch Hits 0
0.0 Player Rating 0.0
1 Is Qualified 1
0 Is Qualified In Steals 0
13 Total Bases 8
40 Plate Appearances 37
0.0 Projected Home Runs 0.0
4 Extra Base Hits 1
5.2 Runs Created 3.5
.242 Batting Average .226
.000 Pinch Hit Average .000
.394 Slugging Percentage .258
.303 Secondary Average .226
.350 On Base Percentage .351
.744 OBP Pct + SLG Pct .609
0.6 Ground To Fly Ball Ratio 0.8
5.4 Runs Created Per 27 Outs 3.9
28.5 Batter Rating 25.0
0.0 At Bats Per Home Run 0.0
0.00 Stolen Base Percentage 0.00
4.35 Pitches Per Plate Appearance 3.89
.152 Isolated Power .032
0.63 Walk To Strikeout Ratio 0.60
.125 Walks Per Plate Appearance .162
.061 Secondary Average Minus Batting Average .000
6.0 Runs Produced 8.0
1.0 Runs Ratio 1.0
0.5 Patience Ratio 0.4
0.3 Balls In Play Average 0.3
79.5 MLB Rating 75.0
0.0 Offensive Wins Above Replacement 0.0
0.0 Wins Above Replacement 0.0

Game Information

PNC Park

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 20,078 | Capacity:

2024 American League Central Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Cleveland 92 69 .571 - L2
Kansas City 86 76 .531 6.5 W1
Detroit 86 76 .531 6.5 L2
Minnesota 82 80 .506 10.5 L4
Chicago 41 121 .253 51.5 W2

2024 National League Central Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Milwaukee 93 69 .574 - L1
St. Louis 83 79 .512 10 W1
Chicago 83 79 .512 10 L1
Cincinnati 77 85 .475 16 W1
Pittsburgh 76 86 .469 17 L1
Full Standings