PITTSBURGH — Gio Urshela, Kerry Carpenter and Jake Rogers delivered RBI singles in the ninth inning as the Detroit Tigers rallied past the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 on Tuesday.

Detroit won for just the second time in six games by getting to Pirates closer David Bednar (1-1), who blew his third save opportunity in four tries.

Pittsburgh led 3-1 heading to the ninth before the Tigers broke loose against Bednar, a two-time All-Star who missed most of spring training with a lat injury.

Bednar walked Greene leading off the inning, then hit Spencer Torkelson. Urshela singled and both runners scored when Michael A. Taylor’s wayward throw from center to third base skipped into the netting near the Pittsburgh dugout.

Carpenter and Rogers followed with run-scoring singles to give Detroit a split of the short two-game interleague set.

Urshela and Matt Vierling had two hits apiece for Detroit. Shelby Miller (3-0) pitched a scoreless eighth, and Jason Foley worked the ninth for his third save. Casey Mize allowed two runs in five innings and his velocity reached 98 mph as he continues his comeback from Tommy John surgery.

Edward Olivares homered twice for the Pirates. Ke’Bryan Hayes had two hits and drove in a run for Pittsburgh.

Olivares, acquired from Kansas City in December, took Mize’s first pitch of the second and sent it into the left-field bleachers to tie the game. His second solo shot leading off the sixth against Tyler Holton landed almost in the same spot to give the outfielder the third multi-homer game of his five-year big league career.

Perez used a terrific double-play turn keyed by a diving Hayes to get out of a bumpy first inning and settled down. The 33-year-old left-hander, signed to an $8 million, one-year deal in January, retired 22 of his final 25 batters. Perez struck out seven without a walk.

The Pirates opted to go to Bednar in the ninth with Perez at 100 pitches. While Perez said he would have been fine taking the ball one more time, he understands the thought process in bringing in Bednar.

Detroit played stellar defense to stay in a position to come back, including a leaping catch at the left-field wall by Greene at the end of the fifth that robbed Hayes of extra bases and prevented the Pirates from adding an insurance run.

Olivares did provide Pittsburgh with a two-run lead when he took Holton deep. It wasn’t enough, however, for the Pirates (9-3) to match their best 12-game start since 1992.

UP NEXT

Pirates: Begin a seven-game trip Thursday in Philadelphia when rookie Jared Jones (1-1, 3.86) makes his third major-league start.