How one wild inning sunk the Bucs vs. Twins

After an 11-inning loss to the Cubs on Sunday in which they used nine pitchers, Derek Holland gave the Pirates the start they needed Monday night at Target Field. Until the sixth inning, at least -- and little of what went wrong in that frame fell on the veteran left-hander’s shoulders.

A misplay by Cole Tucker, making his second professional start in center field, and an ill-fated relief appearance by Miguel Del Pozo turned the tide in the sixth inning of the Pirates’ fifth straight loss, a 5-4 walk-off defeat to the Twins.

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“Yeah, it sucked. We had the lead and we did a couple things that gave the lead back,” said manager Derek Shelton. “We put ourselves in a situation where we didn’t execute. Because of our lack of execution, a good team took advantage.”

Holland executed seemingly every pitch he made early on against a tough lineup, allowing only two singles while striking out five over his first five innings. He retired two of the first three batters he faced in the sixth, with a walk sandwiched in between, then Nelson Cruz smacked an RBI single to right field and Miguel Sanó worked a walk. Still, Holland had a three-run lead and only one out standing between him and Pittsburgh’s first six-inning start of the season.

Then Max Kepler ripped a 102.5 mph line drive directly at Tucker in center field. The lifelong shortstop, making just his fifth regular-season appearance in the outfield, initially broke in on the play -- a misread that cost him and Holland. Tucker turned around and jumped for the ball, but it sailed over his glove for a two-run double that ended Holland’s outing.

Tucker, who homered on Twins lefty Lewis Thorpe’s first pitch of the night, admitted after the game he was upset with himself for not making that play. It was essentially his first mistake as an outfielder, and it came on what Shelton called “probably the most difficult play an outfielder can make.”

Veteran center fielder Jarrod Dyson pulled Tucker aside after the game and told him, “Don’t beat yourself up.” The Pirates view it as a teaching moment for a player they expect to be part of their future.

“If I don’t make that false step forward, I probably make the play and coast to it pretty easily,” Tucker said. “But with the false step and working back like I did, I just didn’t have the height. It’s a bummer. But it’s a play that I can make. It’s a play that I will make.”

Curiously, Shelton called upon Del Pozo to get out of the jam. The lefty entered the night with as many walks as outs recorded (five) in his first three appearances this season, and he left the game Monday with three more walks than outs.

Del Pozo threw only six of his 18 pitches for strikes, issuing three consecutive walks to Marwin Gonzalez, Jake Cave and Byron Buxton. With Buxton batting, Del Pozo fired a 92 mph fastball that landed about a foot in front of the plate and bounced past catcher Jacob Stallings, allowing Kepler to score the tying run.

But why was Del Pozo thrust into a high-leverage situation, anyway? For one, consider the state of Pittsburgh’s battered bullpen with closer Keone Kela, setup man Kyle Crick, Michael Feliz and Clay Holmes all currently shelved. And after a long game Sunday afternoon, Shelton’s options were limited.

The manager said Nik Turley was unavailable, and Geoff Hartlieb was only available in an emergency. Lefty Sam Howard pitched two high-stress innings Sunday. He could have turned to Chris Stratton, who wound up getting out of the sixth then working a scoreless seventh, but that was a spot in the lineup they identified for Del Pozo: the switch-hitting Gonzalez and the lefty-swinging Cave.

“It was something we outlined before the game, where he would like him in the game,” Shelton said. “Then once you get to a point where you get a little bit of command issues, he’s still got to face the third batter.”

From Tucker’s first-pitch homer until the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates never trailed on Monday night. But the Twins came out on top by rallying against reliever Nick Burdi, once a second-round Draft pick by Minnesota.

Jorge Polanco punched a leadoff single to left field, took second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Luis Arraez flyout to right field and scored when Cruz launched a walk-off single to deep center field. It was the Pirates’ eighth loss in 10 games this season and their third straight one-run defeat.

“That team across from us right now, that’s an unbelievable team right now. I feel like that’s the team to watch out for,” Holland said. “They have a strong team over there, and for us to be right in it, have the lead for most of the game, it just goes to show that we have it. It’s just a matter of executing. We’ve got to finish it off. That’s the big thing.”