Dallas Keuchel takes perfect game into 7th, Twins blank Pirates

Dallas Keuchel tossed 6 1/3 perfect innings en route to his first victory in over 15 months as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Keuchel (1-1) yielded just one hit, an opposite-field double off the right-field wall by Bryan Reynolds on a 3-1 pitch in the seventh. Griffin Jax then replaced Keuchel, who received a standing ovation from the crowd, and struck out Andrew McCutchen and Ke'Bryan Hayes to end the inning.

The 35-year-old Keuchel, released three times during a 2-9 campaign in 2022, was making just his third start of the season and was coming off a 13-2 loss at Philadelphia on Aug. 11, when he allowed six runs on six hits in just 1 2/3 innings.

The 2015 Cy Young Award winner, who didn't strike out a batter in his first two starts of the season, finished with three strikeouts. He threw a season-high 85 pitches, 53 for strikes, and recorded 10 groundouts to pick up his first victory since a 3-2 win at Boston on May 8, 2022, while with the Chicago White Sox.

Donovan Solano had a double, a single and two runs, and Edouard Julien doubled and drove in two runs for Minnesota. Jhoan Duran earned his 23rd save with a scoreless ninth.

Osvaldo Bido (2-4) took the loss, allowing two runs on four hits in 3 1/3 innings. He hit one batter and struck out six. Reynolds finished with two hits, including a two-out infield single off Duran in the ninth.

Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Solano led off with a single, advanced to third on a bloop single by Carlos Correa and scored on a sacrifice fly by Julien.

The Twins extended their lead to 2-0 in the sixth when Solano led off with an opposite-field over the head of right fielder Henry Davis and scored two outs later on Julien's double that one-hopped the wall in left.