The Kansas City Royals came to PNC Park with baseball’s best record, riding a five-game winning streak and with a small-market, team-building template the Pittsburgh Pirates want to follow. In a span of three seasons, the Royals went from worst to first in the AL Central, turning a 104-loss team in 2018 into one with a .667 winning percentage.

That wasn’t lost on Pirates manager Derek Shelton, whose team was projected to lose 100-plus games but returned from a 10-day road trip that defied expectations by winning three consecutive series.

“We have to figure out ways to create run-scoring opportunities,” Shelton said. “We’ve talked numerous times about how we’re not just going to sit and bang with people, and we did a really nice job executing. Sometimes you don’t have to hit the ball hard, you just have to put the ball in play.”

Wilmer Difo did just that in the seventh inning, driving in the go-ahead run on a pinch-hit bloop to left-center as the Pirates beat the Royals, 2-1, Tuesday night before 5,510 at PNC Park.

It was the ninth victory in 13 games for the Pirates (12-11), who have a winning record for the first time since beating the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day. They took a 1-0 lead in the first when Bryan Reynolds drew a two-out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Jakob Junis and scored on a single to center by Colin Moran (3 for 4).

The Royals (14-8) tied it in the third, when Nicky Lopez drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on Junis’ sacrifice bunt and to third on Whit Merrifield’s groundout to second. Tyler Anderson thought he got Carlos Santana looking for the third out on a 1-2 cutter, but home plate umpire Andy Fletcher called it a ball.

Santana drove the next pitch down the third-base line, where Erik Gonzalez made a backhand stab in foul territory but his off-balance throw to first pulled Moran off the bag. Santana beat the throw for a single to score Lopez and make it 1-1.

That was the only run Anderson allowed, as the lefty surrendered three hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings against a lineup loaded with right-handed hitters.

Anderson got strong defensive play behind him, especially with two sliding catches for the final out, by Bryan Reynolds in center in the fourth and by Phillip Evans in left field in the seventh, and gave the Pirates a fifth consecutive start of at least five innings.

“When we signed him this offseason, we knew he was a veteran guy that had the ability to do this stuff and pitched in the National League before,” Shelton said. “But it’s definitely stabilizing for us. To get us through six, that was outstanding.”

Neither Anderson nor Junis topped 93 mph, though Junis got the Pirates to chase his cutter low and away for nine strikeouts in 6 1⁄3 innings. Duane Underwood Jr. (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh for the win. The Royals pulled Junis (1-1) in the seventh after Jacob Stallings hit a leadoff single to right and Kevin Newman hit a grounder behind shortstop Nicky Lopez, who got caught cheating toward second base on the hit-and-run.

The ball deflected off the glove of Lopez, allowing Stallings to reach third. Difo dropped a bloop single between a sliding Michael A. Taylor and Hunter Dozier in shallow left-center to score Stallings for the go-ahead run.

“My mindset going up to the box was putting the ball in play,” Difo said. “I knew that they wouldn’t be able to get a double play on me, because I run hard, I run fast. So Ijust needed to make sure that I would get the ball in play, hit it somewhere in a gap, hit it somewhere out there in the air so I could get that scoring run in. So I went up there aggressive, and when I saw that pitch, I knew that was the pitch I needed to make contact with.”

Richard Rodriguez recorded his fourth save with a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Taylor for the final out to extend his MLB-best scoreless inning streak to 21.

“I think we’re very confident,” Moran said. “We’ve been playing really good defense behind ‘em. They’ve pitched really well. Those are two things, at least defensively, for sure, it keeps you in there all the time. The way they’ve been pitching, we feel like if we can get ahead early, we like our chances.”

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