Mitch Keller continues to show why the Pittsburgh Pirates named him their Opening Day starter.
The right-hander had seven strikeouts and allowed three hits in 4 2/3 innings as the Pirates beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-4, on Saturday afternoon in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.
It was the third consecutive win for the Pirates, their longest such streak of spring training.
The Twins took an early lead when Trevor Larnach hit a solo home run in the fourth inning.
Keller got run support in the bottom of the fourth from Ke’Bryan Hayes, who hit a two-run homer, and a Mark Mathias RBI double for a 3-1 lead.
The Twins cut it to 3-2 when Matt Wallner singled off lefty Jose Hernandez to score Willi Castro in the sixth, but the Pirates answered again.
Hayes scored on Miguel Andujar’s sacrifice fly, and Rodolfo Castro singled to score Canaan Smith-Njigba for a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth.
The Twins got RBI singles by Brooks Lee and Jose Miranda off Carmen Mlodzinski to cut it to 5-4 in the seventh, but Travis Swaggerty answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning for a 6-4 lead and Andres Alvarez added an RBI double in the eighth.
