Jared Jones pitched four inning of one-hit ball and Konnor Griffin led off the game with a solo home run and drove in two runs to lead the Pirates to a 4-2 win over the host Tigers on Sunday in Detroit, Mich.
Griffin’s solo homer was the sixth of his rookie season and first of two hits and helped Pittsburgh (82-80) secure its first winning record since 2018 and only its second since it last made the postseason in 2015.
The Tigers (76-86) finished with a losing record after advancing to the American League Division Series each of the past two seasons.
Jones was not eligible for the win after exiting the game before the fifth, but struck out five and did not walk a batter. Jones finished 5-6 with a 3.72 ERA in 21 starts after returning from elbow surgery in late May. He capped a stellar September in which he went 3-0 with a 0.93 ERA, allowing only three earned runs in 29 innings (five starts).
Rookie River Ryan (0-1) made his second career start and allowed two runs on three hits, struck out three and walked two over 1 1/3 innings.
Pirates closer Mason Montgomery picked up his 18th save, striking out two in a perfect ninth inning.
Jake Mangum extended the Pirates’ lead to 2-0 with an RBI single in the second to score Spencer Horwitz, who led off the inning with a walk. Billy Cook doubled with two outs in the fourth to drive in Nick Gonzales and scored on Griffin’s RBI single to put Pittsburgh up 4-0.
Detroit finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back solo home runs by AL Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin McGonigle and Eduardo Valencia off reliever Antwone Kelly. McGonigle led the Tigers with two of their three hits.
Lake Bachar (2-4) relieved Kelly and struck out Brett Callihan and Jace Jung, although Jung reached first on a wild pitch on strike three. Bachar then struck out Zach McKinstry to end the inning. He finished with four of 13 strikeouts by Pittsburgh’s pitchers.
