Jake Mangum had one of the most complete games of his major league career. Not only did he go 3 for 4 and hit his first home run as a Pittsburgh Pirate but scored the decisive run in the seventh inning.
But it was the play Mangum made on a 376-foot line drive that left Orlando Arcia’s bat at a 101.2-mph exit velocity that might have been his most important contribution.
With the game-tying run on first base, Mangum chased down Arcia’s gap shot to rob him of an extra-base hit in the ninth inning and help the Pirates preserve a 10-9 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday afternoon before 24,272 at PNC Park.
Mitch Keller allowed season-highs of seven runs on 10 hits in four innings and tied for season lows with his shortest outing and fewest pitches (77). Twins starter Bailey Ober (6-3) fared even worse, giving up eight runs on 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
The Pirates got off to a fast start when Spencer Horwitz hammered Bailey Ober’s 0-1 fastball, driving it 408 feet and over the right field seats for his seventh home run and a 1-0 lead. It marked the third career leadoff homer for Horwitz, who now has two this season.
That earned a rare spot in the Pirates annals. Coupled with Bryan Reynolds hitting a two-run home run for a 6-5 win over the Twins on Friday night, they became only the third pair of Pirates teammates since at least 1900 to hit a walk-off homer followed by a leadoff homer in sequential games. (Al Martin hit a walk-off home run to beat the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 12, 1993, and Carlos Garcia a leadoff homer at the Florida Marlins two days later; and Jacob Stallings hit a walk-off blast and Adam Frazier a leadoff shot against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 22-23, 2020).
The Twins tied it in the second, when Kody Clemens hit a leadoff double and scored on Victor Caratini’s double to left, but the Pirates answered with a six-run outburst in the bottom of the second.
The rally started with Jake Mangum sending a 1-1 fastball 410 feet to right-center for his first homer of the season. Horwitz and Brandon Lowe hit successive singles and Bryan Reynolds drew a full-count walk to load the bases for Nick Gonzales, who hit a bloop single to right to drive in two runs for a 4-1 lead.
Oneil Cruz then crushed an elevated fastball for a 420-foot shot off the batter’s eye in center field for a three-run homer, his second in as many games and 13th of the season to make it 7-1.
But Keller couldn’t protect the comfortable cushion. Clemens tripled in the third to drive in Byron Buxton to cut it to 7-2. Then the Twins tied it by scoring five runs on five hits in the fourth, on two-run doubles by Tristan Gray and Josh Bell and a line-drive single to right by Clemens.
Griffin got the Pirates going in the fifth, beating the throw on a bouncer to second baseman Luke Keaschall for a one-out infield single. Endy Rodriguez reached on a catcher’s interference call against Caratini, moving Griffin into scoring position. When Mangum hit a sharp line drive to left, Griffin raced home and beat Larnach’s throw with a head-first slide to the plate to give the Pirates an 8-7 lead.
Endy Rodriguez started the seventh with a walk, then stole second base and advanced to third when Mangum dropped a bunt to reliever Kody Funderburk for a single. The Twins turned to righty John Klein, who gave up an RBI single to Jared Triolo to make it 9-7. Tyler Callihan drew a walk to load the bases, and Reynolds drove in Mangum with a sacrifice fly to right field for a three-run lead.
But Keaschall singled, pinch hitter Ryan Kreidler drew a walk and Buxton singled off the top of the Clemente Wall off lefty Mason Montgomery with one out in the eighth. With the bases loaded, Brooks Lee drew a walk to score Keaschall to cut it to 10-8. Kreidler scored when Bell grounded out to first, making it a one-run game.
That forced the Pirates to bring in closer Gregory Soto, who got Clemens to ground out to second to end the frame and protect the lead.
Caratini drew a one-out walk in the ninth and was replaced by pinch runner James Outman. After Mangum robbed Arcia for the second out, Soto got Keaschall to fly out to right to earn his seventh save.