PITTSBURGH (AP) – Jorge Soler had two doubles among his three hits and drove in three runs to lead Kansas City over the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-6 on Wednesday night and improve the Royals’ record to a major league-best 15-8. Soler’s doubles sparked three-run rallies in the first and sixth innings, stretching the lead to 9-5.
Kansas City won for the sixth time in seven games.
Salvador Pérez also had three of Kansas City’s 12 hits. Hunter Dozier hit a two-run triple, and Andrew Benintendi added a two-run double.
Erik Gonzalez and Jacob Stallings his back-to-back home runs for the Pirates, who had won three in a row.
Staked to a 6-0 lead, Kansas City starter Mike Minor lasted just 4 1/3 innings and gave up five runs –- four earned –- six hits and three walks.
Kyle Zimmer (2-0) got the last two outs of the fifth, and Josh Staumont retired four straight batters for the third save.
Mitch Keller (1-3) walked five in 2 1/3 innings, allowed four runs, and needed 83 pitches to get seven outs. Keller has 13 walks in 18 2/3 innings over five starts.
After Soler doubled in the game’s first run, Dozier hit a two-run triple to the 410-foot mark in left-center field.
bases-loaded walk to Michael A. Taylor in the third inning and consecutive RBI singles by Pérez and Soler in the fourth extended the lead to 6-0.
Gonzalez hit a 453-foot shot to the bleachers in the left center. Stallings caught a break when the ball popped out of Taylor’s glove when the center fielder banged into the top of the fence while trying to make a catch.
Todd Frazier’s first hit with the Pirates, a two-run double in the fifth, cut the gap to 6-5. The two-time All-Star had been 0 for 14 since being called up from the alternate training site last week.
SENT DOWN
The Pirates reassigned Dustin Fowler, designated for assignment last week, to their alternate training site after he cleared waivers. He hit .171 in 18 games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: The team has no timetable for when 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (left wrist strain) might resume swinging. … RHP Michael Feliz (cracked right middle fingernail) threw his first bullpen Wednesday since being injured. … RHP Chad Kuhl (right shoulder discomfort) has started playing catch.
UP NEXT
Royals: On Friday in Minnesota, RHP Brady Singer (1-2, 2.95 ERA) faces RHP Michael Pineda (1-1, 2.42). Singer notched his first win of the season in his last start, holding Detroit to one run in seven innings.
Pirates: On Friday, RHP JT Brubaker (2-1, 2.01) opposing St. Louis RHP John Gant (1-2, 2.25). When he allowed two runs in seven innings, Brubaker had a tough-luck loss his last time out against the Twins.
