Kang homer wins it
Watson blows 4-run lead, but Melancon ends up with victory after 9th-inning blast
MINNEAPOLIS — Jung Ho Kang bailed out Tony Watson Tuesday night. Watson, as reliable a reliever as you can find, had a rare disastrous outing against the Minnesota Twins. He entered in the eighth with a fourrun lead, recorded one out and left with the score tied.
Kang homered off Twins closer Glen Perkins in the ninth, and the Pirates won, 8-7, at Target Field.
“He continues to grow,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s doing things here he’s probably done before in some sequence or context, in a different place.”
Kang fell behind the lefthanded Perkins, 1-2, before hammering a breaking ball into the second deck in left-center field.
“He expects a lot out of himself,” Hurdle said. “I don’t think he was surprised. He’s happy it happened.”
Watson took over in the bottom of the eighth. After striking out Miguel Sano, he allowed five consecutive hits. Aaron Hicks’ single scored a run, Kurt Suzuki’s
double scored two more and Eduardo Escobar’s double tied the score at 7-7.
The Pirates had that fourrun lead courtesy of Gregory Polanco, who entered the game with 15 hits in his past 46 at-bats (.326). That stretch included a walk-off hit against the St. Louis Cardinals July 12 and a game-tying home run after a 12-pitch at-bat against the Washington Nationals Friday.
“Batting in the cage, with the tee, trying to stay short and trying to do it in the game like that, just stay short to the ball,” Polanco said. “I know I have very quick hands so I try to stay short to the ball.”
Tuesday, he came through in the eighth against Twins left-hander Brian Duensing.
With the score tied at 3-3 after seven, Pedro Alvarez and Francisco Cervelli singled with one out against right-hander Casey Fien, at which point Duensing entered.
Pinch-hitter Sean Rodriguez struck out. Jaff Decker fell behind, 1- 2, then watched three balls in the dirt to walk and load the bases.
Polanco lined Duensing’s offering high off the wall in right, clearing the bases and taking third on the throw. Neil Walker singled to send home Polanco.
Polanco had had two RBI hits taken away by the Twins defense earlier in the game.
“I kept trying to hit it on the barrel because if you hit it on the barrel, you’re going to get good results,” he said.
Mark Melancon recorded five outs and was the winner.
Charlie Morton began six innings and put the leadoff batter aboard in four of them. Two of them scored, and the second one pulled the Twins even at 3-3 in the sixth.
Sano walked to start the bottom of the sixth. Morton then struck out Trevor Plouffe and Eddie Rosario swinging at curveballs. He had Hicks down, 0-2, one pitch away from getting out of the inning, but Hicks drove a curveball into the right-field corner to tie the score.
Polanco double-clutched, hesitating to throw the ball back in, and Hicks reached third with what was ruled a triple.
Morton put men on base in every inning he pitched. In 5⅔ innings he walked four and allowed three runs.
“The hits I gave up on the sinker were down [in the zone],” Morton said.
Joe Mauer walked with two outs in the first and broke for second on a pitch to Sano. Catcher Francisco Cervelli adjusted his stance, readying himself to throw to second, during Morton’s delivery, and Morton for some reason aborted the pitch. The balk put Mauer in scoring position.
Morton got Sano to dribble a grounder to third. Aramis Ramirez charged, bare-handed the ball and made a decent throw on the move, but first baseman Travis Ishikawa couldn’t scoop it and the run scored.
Rosario tripled and scored in the fourth.
Consecutive singles from Cervelli and Ishikawa started a two-run fifth inning that tied the score. Decker bunted down the third-base line and Plouffe, charging, threw high, allowing Cervelli to score.