CINCINNATI — The Pirates aren’t built for this.
Going toe-to-toe with the Reds in a slugfest at Great American Ball Park isn’t an ideal strategy for most teams, but especially the Pirates. Cincinnati has too many powerful bats, and they’re used to this sort of thing, especially here.
The Reds scored 27 runs in their first three games this season. There will be times this season when Pittsburgh might need a week or 10 days match that number.
So, while the Pirates put up a solid fight, including hitting three home runs, it wasn’t enough, as the Reds dominated the middle innings and handed Pittsburgh a 5-3 defeat.
Bryan Reynolds homered in the ninth inning, but it turned out to be too little, too late. The Reds pushed across two runs in the bottom of the eighth after right fielder Nick Castellanos gave them the lead for good with a solo home run in the seventh.
From the second through the eighth, the Pirates had just one hit — a single from pitcher JT Brubaker — and struck out 13 times. Overall, Pittsburgh struck out 15 times against the Reds.
Castellanos, who earlier Monday was suspended two games for his role inciting a benches-clearing incident over the weekend against St. Louis (he's appealing), had the loudest swing of the game.
Pirates pitcher Sam Howard fell behind, 3-1, and Castellanos sat on Howard's bread-and-butter pitch: the slider. Castellanos got all of it, too, blistering the ball 431 feet at 108.9 out to left-center field.
Second baseman Jonathan India added a run-scoring single, and left fielder Aristides Aquino knocked in another run with his double the following inning.
Solo homers or single runs should not win games, but they do when your margin for error is paper thin. That’s the lesson from this one. Home runs are great, but the Pirates are the type of team that can count on them regularly. They need to make more consistent contact and get on base.
Although it was not Brubaker’s first time pitching here – he allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings during a Sept. 16, 2020 start at Great American Ball Park – it was the 27-year-old’s first in front of fans. That much was evident from the sizable cheering section Brubaker had in attendance, the group seated down the third-base line and celebrating his every move.
It was mostly a solid start for the Springfield, Ohio native, who went to high school about 70 miles from where the Reds play their home games. Brubaker pitched four innings and allowed a run on three hits while striking out six.
The same for all Pirates starters thus far, Brubaker struggled some with his control, walking four. Through four games, Pittsburgh’s rotation has given out 13 free passes in 15 innings. Those guys need to trust their stuff and do a better job of commanding the strike zone.
At least Brubaker did a solid job minimizing hard contact, the Reds producing an average exit velocity of just 87.6 mph off of him. One of the ways the right-hander did that was by what’s called pitching backwards — using his breaking stuff to set up the fastball.
Brubaker threw his slider more than anything else (34%) and picked up his first three strikeouts with either sinkers or four-seamers.
Though he left the game with a one-run lead, Brubaker watched it evaporate with one swing from Pirates killer Mike Moustakas, who welcomed rookie Luis Oviedo to the major leagues.
Making his second career appearance, Oviedo left a fastball over the middle of the plate, and Moustakas absolutely crushed it to the Budweiser deck in right field, the ball traveling 430 feet at 110.2. It was the 17th home run for Moustakas in 42 games career games against the Pirates, 41 of them starts.
Phillip Evans showed why he may have made Todd Frazier expendable with a first-inning home run that traveled an estimated 445 feet. Powerful swing, too, as Evans absolutely clobbered a 2-2 changeup that was middle-in.
While Evans did a terrific job of working the count to his advantage, Colin Moran took the opposite tack: crushing the first pitch he saw from José De León – a slider the Reds starter hung that was right in Moran’s wheelhouse.
A day after Moran hit an opposite-field homer at Wrigley Field, Moran pulled this one into the seats, the solo shot extending Pittsburgh’s first-inning lead to 2-0.
The Pirates had several chances to prevent the Reds’ first run from scoring and could not do that. Center fielder Nick Senzel walked, and the Reds had runners on first and second after Evans waited a tick too long to throw to second base on a potential double-play ball.
Initially, second baseman Jonathan India was ruled out, but Cincinnati challenged and won. If Brubaker could just get De León – no hits in four career at-bats before Monday – out, the Pirates would escape trouble.
No dice. De León stuck his bat out and poked a slider off the plate past a diving Adam Frazier and into shallow right field for a run-scoring single. When Brubaker singled in the third inning, it meant two pitchers had their first MLB hit in the same game for the first time since July 21, 2015 (Tampa Bay's Nate Karns and Philadelphia's Aaron Nola).
It's the first time involving a Pirates pitcher since July 7, 2008 (Phil Dumatrait and Houston's Runelvys Hernandez).
