Pirates allow two home runs, lose 4-3 to Rangers
Corey Seager homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Texas Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 on Monday night.
Seager's nine homers in August are tied for the major league lead with Miami's Jake Burger. He also went deep twice on Aug. 2 against Boston.
Texas finished with five hits.
Rangers right-hander José Ureña (4-8) pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Dane Dunning. Ureña struck out three and walked two.
Kirby Yates worked a perfect ninth for his 22nd save after having his first blown save of the season on Sunday.
The defending World Series champions, 11 games out of first place in the AL West and 12½ games behind in the wild-card race, have won consecutive games for the first time since a four-game home sweep of the Chicago White Sox in July.
"These are two big games for us, and we can hopefully keep building off it," Seager said.
Thirteen of Seager's team-high 28 homers have come against first pitches, tops in the majors.
Pittsburgh has dropped 12 of 14. Jared Triolo hit a three-run homer in the fourth for the Pirates.
Seager launched a 3-2 cutter for a solo shot in the first against Luis Ortiz (5-4). He connected on a first-pitch slider from Ortiz for a three-run drive in the third.
Both homers were pulled to right field. The first went about 20 rows deep while the second barely cleared the wall.
"We made two, flat, middle-middle breaking balls to him," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Seager. "I mean, you cannot do that.
"And then Ureña came in the game, and he shut us down."
Triolo, who played for Lake Travis High near Austin and the University of Houston, pulled a 1-1 slider just inside the foul pole in left for his second homer among three August hits in 21 at-bats.
Ortiz allowed five hits in six innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
Dunning made his second straight start since returning to the rotation in the wake of injuries to multiple Rangers pitchers. He was charged with three runs and five hits.
Pirates designated hitter Joey Bart extended his on-base streak to a career-best 16 games with two singles.
Billy McKinney, a Dallas native recalled by Pittsburgh from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier Monday, singled twice for his first major league hits since last August.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Pirates: INF Ke'Bryan Hayes (lower back inflammation) was placed on the 10-day injured list. ... OF Joshua Palacios was reinstated from the IL and optioned to Indianapolis.
Rangers: RHP Jacob deGrom (elbow surgery) will make the first of four planned rehab starts on Thursday for Double-A Frisco. He could return to the majors at some point in early to mid-September. ... RHP Max Scherzer (arm fatigue), who most recently pitched on July 30, will make a rehab appearance for Frisco on Friday. ... RHP Jon Gray (groin strain) could be activated Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Pirates RHP Mitch Keller (10-7, 3.95 ERA) will start Tuesday night's game coming off his worst start of the season, allowing eight runs in five innings in an 8-2 loss to San Diego. Keller will face Rangers LHP Cody Bradford (4-0, 3.50 ERA), who is 1-0 with a 3.67 ERA since returning to the starting rotation early this month.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
