Community Picks: Minnesota Twins 0% vs Kansas City Royals 0%

The Pittsburgh Pirates hadn't hit a home run this season until Friday. When it happened, the bases were loaded and they were down three in the eighth inning. That's when Starling Marte connected for a grand slam that gave them a 6-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Great time for the team's first homer, right? Because of Marte's blast, the Pirates are now 4-0. Yep, the Pirates, despite their scarce number of long balls, haven't lost yet.  [ Elsewhere:  Trevor Story writing unprecedented first chapter to Rockies career ] We'll see if they can keep that going as their series continues Saturday against the Reds. It's the Yahoo Sports MLB Free Game of the Day, which you can stream for free at sports.yahoo.com/videos or right here .  First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. ET. And that pitching matchup should be a good one. Both teams are trotting out their opening-day starters again, so Gerrit Cole for the Pirates against Raisel Iglesias for the Reds. Continue to Article

April 09, 2016 10:13:am EST

Many have crowned the Minnesota Twins the AL Central's new up-and-coming team with the Kansas City Royals now an established power. Coming off another tough loss, the Twins enter Saturday night's matchup with the reigning World Series champions hoping to avoid their worst start in franchise history. Minnesota continues a frustrating season-opening six-game trip in which it's led or been tied in the seventh inning in three of its four losses, a trend that continued in Friday's opener of this three-game series. Continue to Article

April 09, 2016 1:45:am EST

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we'll look the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about. Remember when the Baltimore Orioles started spring training winless in their first 12 games? That was a long time ago, and fortunately for them that time doesn't matter one bit right now.  For the first time since 2011, the Orioles are 4-0 to start the regular season. That's what counts, and they're doing in on both sides of the field, which is definitely encouraging.  [ Sign up for Fantasy Baseball  |  Play for $40K  |  Expert rankings  |  Mock draft  ]  Of course, Baltimore's stacked lineup will set the pace more often than not. That's exactly what they did on Friday, connecting for four home runs in a 6-1 victory against the Rays .    All four, by the way, came against Rays ace Chris Archer. Returning slugger Chris Davis started the barrage with a solo shot in the second inning.  Then in fifth, Baltimore really exploded. Jonathan Schoop, Nolan Reimold and Manny Machado each connected for a solo home run in that frame as the Orioles blew the game wide open.  The offense was more than enough for starter Chris Tillman, who allowed just an Evan Longoria solo home run over his five innings.  Overall, the Orioles rotation, which came into the season with low expectations, has allowed just three earned runs over the first four games. Their bullpen has picked up a lot of slack as well, especially during Monday's rain-interrupted opener. On Friday, T.J. MrFarland and Brad Bauch combined for four scoreless innings to preserve the lead. TOP PERFORMERS Trevor Brown: The San Francisco Giants only had two hits on Friday night. Both of them were home runs, and that was enough to defeat the Dodgers 3-2 . The big one belonged to Brown, who started the game for a resting Buster Posey. He delivered a game-tying two-run shot in the eighth, and that's pretty cool it was the first of his young career. Two innings later, Brandon Crawford ended it with a walkoff blast as the Giants secured a dramatic win.   Cardinals' pinch-hitters:    A balanced attack helped St. Louis earn its first win of the season. Ten different players at least one hit while different seven different players scored runs in the  Cardinals 7-4 victory.  That includes an MLB record setting three pinch-hit home runs, coming from Aledmys Diaz, Jeremy Hazelbaker and Greg Garcia.  Matt Kemp and Yangervis Solarte: After starting the season on the wrong side history, the Padres finally broke out in Friday's 13-6 win against the Rockies . San Diego's scoreless streak actually reached 30 innings to begin the season, but Kemp and Solarte helped put that stretch of futility behind them by combining for seven hits and eight RBIs. Brock Holt:  Things did not look promising for the Boston Red Sox early in their eventual 8-7 win over the Blue Jays . After four innings, Boston trailed 7-2 thanks to a Josh Donaldson grand slam. With Marcus Stroman as the opposing pitcher, the cause almost looked lost. That was, until Boston's Mr. Everything, Brock Holt, stepped up and hit a game-changing grand slam. The slam didn't give Boston the lead, but it gave them life. Holt also added an RBI to complete a big night.   MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT It was a Marte par-tay in Cincinnati. The Pirates defeated the Reds 6-5 and improved to 4-0 thanks to Starling Marte's go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning.  THE SCOREBOARD Tigers 4, Yankees 0 : Jordan Zimmermann pitched seven scoreless in his Detroit debut. Offensively, Miguel Cabrera delivered his first homer of the season while Nick Castellanos went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate. Mets 7, Phillies 2 : Jacob deGrom tossed six innings of one-run ball before leaving with right lat tightness. His exit is being called precautionary and is not expected to impact his next scheduled start. The Phillies, meanwhile, fall to 0-4. Indians 7, White Sox 1 : Cleveland never looked back affter scoring three in the first, two in the second and two in the fourth against John Danks. Carlos Santana and Yan Gomes each had two RBIs.  Brewers 6, Astros 4 : Former Astro Chris Carter smacked a two-run homer and Ryan Braun added his first homer of the season to lead the Brew Crew.  Royals 4, Twins 3 : Kansas City rallied for two in the eight thanks to Salvador Perez's RBI triple and a sacrifice fly from Omar Infante.  Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 2 : Yasmany Tomas delivered a walk-off single in the ninth inning to hand Chicago its first defeat in 2016. Paul Goldschmidt had two RBI, including the game-tying single in the eighth.  A’s 3, Mariners 2 : Chris Coghlan smacked a go-ahead solo home run in the ninth to give Oakland its second one-run win of the season.  Rangers 7, Angels 3 : A.J. Griffin pitched six innings of three-run ball to win his Texas debut.  More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports: - - - - - - - Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813 Continue to Article

April 09, 2016 1:24:am EST

Royals manager Ned Yost often kids Salvador Perez about his lack of speed. ''In batting practice, every time he hits the ball in the gap, he says, 'Triple! Triple!''' Yost said. Perez had an RBI triple in the eighth inning - his first since Sept. 25, 2014 - and scored the go-ahead run on Omar Infante's sacrifice fly to help the Kansas City Royals come back and beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 Friday night. Continue to Article

April 09, 2016 12:41:am EST