Pirates blast three homers in 6-6 tie to Tigers

Two hits by Oneil Cruz and three total home runs was not enough for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday as they tied the Detroit Tigers, 6-6, at Publix Field.

Hoy Park, in his first spring at-bat, gave the Pirates an early lead in the first with an opposite field home run to left. Detroit, however, evened the scoring the following half inning after Javier Baez traded out-for-run with a RBI groundout.

Michael Perez reclaimed the lead for Pittsburgh in the fifth with a two-run home run into the Detroit bullpen.

The Tigers would quickly come back in the later innings by taking advantage of newcomer Austin Brice with two home runs. One came from center fielder Derek Hill and the other was a grand slam by Ryan Kreidler that gave Detroit a one-run advantage.

Hunter Owen plated the final run of the game in the top of the ninth with a home run to left. Reliever Emmanuel Mejia nabbed three outs in the bottom half to lock up the stalemate.

Pittsburgh, now 3-2-1 on the spring, returns to LECOM Park to host the Philadelphia Phillies at 1 p.m. with Mitch Keller slated to start.