20 August 2023
Sonny Gray entered the sixth inning flirting with perfection. By the time he walked off the mound, the Twins were trailing. And when the inning had ended, after the Twins had come up empty after loading the bases with no outs, the team heard boos from its hometown fans.
The pivotal sixth inning saw the Twins surrender their lead and then squander their best scoring chance in a 7-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night at Target Field.
Minnesota Twins first baseman Donovan Solano, bottom, holds on to the throw to put out Pittsburgh Pirates’ Henry Davis during the fourth inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
In that sixth inning, the Pirates got to Gray, who had quite literally been unhittable during his first five innings of work. Gray had thrown five perfect innings to start his night, needing just 47 pitches to do so. But Liover Peguero’s infield hit to third base with one out in the sixth made him the Pirates’ first baserunner of the night and started the three-run inning.
The Pirates collected three more hits and a walk in the inning — two runs scored on Andrew McCutchen’s single — to wipe away a lead the Twins had been protecting since the first inning. They had a prime opportunity to take that lead back, though, loading the bases to lead off the bottom of the frame. But Pirates all-star starter Mitch Keller, capped his night by striking out Royce Lewis, Donovan Solano and Joey Gallo.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – AUGUST 19: Sonny Gray #54 of the Minnesota Twins pitches in the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Target Field on August 19, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
That was part of a 15-strikeout night for the Twins, 12 of which came against Keller, who gave up two runs in his six innings. The first run came on a lucky carom when Max Kepler smoked a ball off of Keller’s foot. The ball wound up in the outfield, allowing Jorge Polanco to score the first run of the game. The Twins scored again in the fifth inning, using back-to-back two-out hits from Christian Vázquez and Michael A. Taylor to do so.
They added another run in the seventh when Polanco’s sacrifice fly brought home Vázquez and scored once in the ninth, but their chances of a comeback were dampened in the ninth inning when reliever Jordan Balazovic served up a three-run home run to McCutchen, who drove in five of the Pirates’ seven runs.
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