CINCINNATI _ By the time Joe Musgrove stepped off the mound after the first inning Tuesday night, all the necessary damage had been done.
The Cincinnati Reds blitzed Musgrove with two singles and a walk to start the inning before Musgrove hit another batter, gave up a sacrifice fly and another single.
All told, the Reds plated three runs in the blink of an eye. They added another run on a solo homer in the second, and though Musgrove tightened it up after that, eventually pitching five innings and allowing just two hits the rest of the way, it was all the Reds would need.
The Pirates got little against Reds right-hander Michael Lorenzen, scoring only one run on a single from first baseman Colin Moran in the fourth and losing their seventh game in a row, 4-1.
While it was another tough blow for a reeling Pirates team, the middle of the sixth inning on Tuesday night began their highlight for the evening, as right-handed reliever Blake Cederlind trotted in from the Pirates' bullpen.
He stepped onto the mound, chatted with catcher Jacob Stallings for a moment and hurled his first warm-up pitch toward home. The radar gun at Great American Ballpark clocked the pitch at 97 miles per hour.
Then, as the Cincinnati Reds stepped up to face Cederlind in his debut, he threw the real gas. He touched 99 twice in his 14 pitches. One of them, a 99.5-mph fastball to Reds outfielder Brian Goodwin, was the hardest pitch thrown by any Pirate this season. He got Goodwin and Reds shortstop Freddy Galvis to ground out to second base and Reds shortstop Jose Garcia to fly out to left field, setting the Reds down 1-2-3 in his first career inning.
Still, as with many of the small, in-game victories for the Pirates (14-33) this season, it was not enough to impact the game in a meaningful way. Their current losing streak has dropped them back down to the worst record in the league, something they have been hovering around all season.
That is why the debuts of Cederlind and third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, who doubled and scored on Moran's single, are so meaningful for the Pirates, as they represent young, new, possibly exciting faces in what has otherwise been a slog of a season.
In the top of the ninth, the Pirates did threaten. After Moran hit a deep fly ball to the wall in right center field, which was caught with a leap by Goodwin, designated hitter Josh Bell and right fielder Gregory Polanco drew consecutive walks to bring the tying run to the plate. But center fielder Cole Tucker struck out and Kevin Newman, who pinch hit, flew out to right.
Once again, they fell short and will have to bounce back Wednesday if there is any hope of salvaging a win from their four-game set with the Reds.
