Trevor Cahill guides Pittsburgh to 6-2 victory over Twins

There was a time when Trevor Cahill could dominate the Twins, could frustrate them with his soft-serve sinkers, could shut them down cold into the late innings and earn his team a lopsided victory.

That time was 2009. And now, 2021.

Cahill, whose last victory over the Twins came during Joe Mauer's MVP season a dozen years ago, enjoyed a remarkably nostalgic performance on Saturday. Though he threw only one pitch all day faster than 90 miles per hour, the journeyman easily retired 18 of the 22 hitters he faced, including the final 13 in a row, to deliver the Pittsburgh Pirates a 6-2 victory at Target Field.

"He's just a veteran guy. He kept us off-balance, you know?" said veteran guy Nelson Cruz, whose 0-for-3 against Cahill on Saturday gave him 33 career plate appearances without a home run against the righthander. "He was throwing all kinds of breaking balls. Cutters, changeups and curveballs. He was dealing."

Jake Cave doubled home Jorge Polanco, who had walked off Cahill, in the second inning, and then doubled and scored the Twins' other run in the eighth off reliever Duane Underwood. But the home team only managed one other hit all day and was held to two or fewer runs for the seventh time in 10 games.

That's why it was difficult to determine whether the Twins, whose seven victories are tied for the fewest in the majors, were silenced by effective pitching, or simply victimized once more by their own slumping offense.

"When you're doing bad, everything is going the opposite. When we hit, I guess the pitching is not there. When the pitching is there, we don't hit," Cruz said. "It's tough. Nothing you can do about it [but] just come with the positive mentality every day. Don't put your head down."

"When we finally get different parts of the order kind of working in synchrony, and being able to push some runs across with those types of at-bats, we'll get where we need to be. It's still early. We're still in April right now," the Twins manager said. "It hasn't allowed our guys to really get into their rhythm yet. But I know it's coming. I know our guys are going to be just fine."

BOXSCORE: Pittsburgh 6, Twins 2

The Pirates probably said the same about Cahill, a one-time All-Star in 2010 who came into the game with a 9.69 ERA in three starts for Pittsburgh, his ninth MLB team, but peeled off more than 2½ runs in six mostly effortless innings, reducing it to 7.11.

"I was definitely with my back against the wall a little bit after I had two pretty bad outings, but I don't really let it change me," said Cahill, who beat Twins starter Glen Perkins in Oakland on July 22, 2009, his lone victory against them before Saturday. "I've had a kind of rocky, up-and-down career, so I know what I'm doing out there. I'm just trying to figure out what's working that day."

That's Michael Pineda's normal plan, too, and it normally works. But the righthander, whose ERA was 1.00 in his first three starts, gave up five runs on six hits, including back-to-back home runs by Pittsburgh's eighth- and ninth-place hitters, catcher Michael Perez and shortstop Kevin Newman, neither of whom had hit one this season.