Tigers outslug Pirates 17-13 in 11 innings after layoff

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Niko Goodrum drove in five runs, two on a double in a big 11th inning that sent the Detroit Tigers over the Pittsburgh Pirates 17-13 in a startling slugfest on Friday night.

Both teams finished with 16 hits, surprising since each club had four players in the starting lineup batting under .190. Those numbers soon changed as Detroit played its first game in five days.

“Crazy stuff happened in that game,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “That’s why we love to play it.”

Erik Gonzalez, batting ninth for the Pirates, drove in six runs. He homered, doubled and singled twice as Pittsburgh lost for the eighth time in nine games and fell to 3-11, the worst record in the majors.

“When I’m seeing pitches every day and getting my timing, I can compete better,” Gonzalez said.

It was 12-all after nine innings and Jeimer Candelario broke a 13-all tie with an RBI single in the 11th. Austin Romine singled home another run and Goodrum capped the inning with his line drive to right field.

Candelario finished with three hits and three RBIs as Detroit improved to 6-5, a year after its 47-114 record was the worst in the major leagues.

“We have that mentality that we want to win every game,” Candelario said. “When the other team is making an adjustment, we make an adjustment. They come back, we come back. We’re never going to give up.”

The Tigers returned to action for the first time since Sunday after their four-game series with St. Louis earlier in the week was postponed because of the Cardinals’ COVID-19 outbreak.

“I think as the game went along, we got better, we had better at-bats,” Gardenhire said. “But you could feel that we hadn’t played in a while. Even managing, I had to refocus myself on situational baseball and all...

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