Major League Baseball
Pittsburgh 5, Minnesota 4
When: 1:05 PM ET, Monday, April 2, 2018
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Temperature: 40°
Umpires: Home - Chris Conroy, 1B - Fieldin Culbreth, 2B - Brian O'Nora, 3B - Chad Whitson
Attendance: 30186
Colin Moran hit his first career grand slam and right-hander Jameson Taillon struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates remained unbeaten with a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday at PNC Park.

Gregory Polanco reached base five times on a double and four walks as the Pirates (4-0) prevailed in their home opener. Taillon (1-0) allowed two runs and four hits and didn't issue a walk in 5 1/3 innings.

Right-hander George Kontos worked a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.

Twins right-hander Lance Lynn struggled with his command in his debut with the team after signing as a free agent last month. Lynn (0-1) issued six walks in four innings while allowing five runs, three hits and recording three strikeouts.

Brian Dozier homered for the Twins (2-2) and has gone deep three times in the past two games. Eduardo Escobar had two of Minnesota's seven hits.

Moran's 405-foot blast into the seats in right field capped a five-run first inning off Lynn.

Josh Harrison led off the inning with a walk and scored on Polanco's run-scoring double to center. Lynn walked two more batters while retiring two others to load the bases before the left-handed-hitting Moran delivered in his home debut with his second career homer.

The Twins were silenced through the first five innings by Taillon before getting their bats moving in the sixth.

Tallion served up a one-out homer to Dozier and then allowed a single to Joe Mauer and double to Miguel Sano before being removed. Right-hander Edgar Santana entered and threw a wild pitch to score Mauer before Escobar and Max Kepler hit back-to-back RBI doubles later in the inning as Minnesota cut the deficit to 5-4.

The Twins had two on with two out in the eighth before Pirates right-hander Michael Feliz got out of the jam by retiring Byron Buxton on a fielder's choice.

Pittsburgh missed a chance at insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Starling Marte grounded out with the bases loaded against Minnesota right-hander Addison Reed.

The Pirates had just five hits.

Moran was one of four players the Pirates received in the offseason deal in which they traded ace right-hander Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Minnesota   Pittsburgh
Lance Lynn Player Jameson Taillon
Loss W/L Win
4.0 IP 5.1
3 Strikeouts 9
3 Hits 4
11.25 ERA 3.38
Hitting
Minnesota   Pittsburgh
Eduardo Escobar Player Gregory Polanco
2 Hits 1
1 RBI 1
0 HR 0
3 TB 2
.500 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Minnesota 7 1 13 .212 12 10 3 3 0 0
Pittsburgh 5 1 9 .185 20 6 5 11 0 0