CINCINNATI _ A few days off and a trip to this beautiful bandbox along the Ohio-Kentucky border may have cured the Pirates' offensive woes.
At minimum, those factors contributed to a 9-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday at Great American Ball Park, the Pirates snapping a three-game losing streak by erupting for all of their runs in the first two innings.
Adam Frazier led off the game with a home run, while Colin Moran and Gregory Polanco followed with early shots over the fence, as the Pirates (4-13) have now homered 11 times in their last five games at Great American Ball Park dating back to 2019.
Reds starter Anthony DeSclafani came into this one having not allowed a single earned run in his previous two starts, but the Pirates evidently were not impressed.
They made a bunch of loud contact against DeSclafani, including seven balls in the first two innings that carried an exit velocity of at least 100 mph.
It was a welcomed change for a group that awoke Thursday with the worst OPS in the National League (.601) and the second-lowest batting average (.209), one that didn't have issues scoring runs late but pushed across almost none early.
Just one example: With a pair of solo home runs, the Pirates matched their season total for runs in the first inning.
"I think from the seventh inning on, we're doing a better job," manager Derek Shelton said before the game. "We have to do a better job with starters, and it's been part of the conversation that we're having with our group right now."
But even though the Pirates came out swinging after three days off because their series in St. Louis was postponed, this win didn't come as easily as it should have. They made it more interesting than it needed to be.
The Reds chipped away at the Pirates' 9-0 lead and crept to within four in the eighth inning after center fielder Nick Senzel doubled off of Geoff Hartlieb.
That prompted Shelton to go with Richard Rodriguez, who found himself locked in an eight-pitch battle with the next hitter, second baseman Josh VanMeter. To win it, Rodriguez got VanMeter swinging on a 92.6 mph fastball.
The inning ended when Reds shortstop Freddy Galvis bounced to second base, and Frazier had a slight bobble but gathered the ball in his stomach and made a fine recovery.
In the ninth, as Keone Kela made his first appearance of the season, catcher Tucker Barnhart led off the inning with a home run into the Pirates bullpen. Kela allowed a single to left fielder Phillip Ervin before shutting the door.
Two pitches into Thursday's game, it was evident something was different. That's when Frazier whacked an elevated four-seamer for the eighth leadoff home run of his career, tying Andrew McCutchen and Bob Bailey for the third-most in franchise history.
After DeSclafani responded by getting two outs, Moran hit his first home run since Aug. 1, jumping on a slider that DeSclafani didn't bury far enough inside. Moran had been 3-for-25 (.120) since that last homer, and his team-high sixth traveled 430 feet.
Polanco opened a seven-run second for the Pirates with just his third hit of the season, when the right fielder took deep another elevated heater from DeSclafani. But Pittsburgh wasn't even close to done.
Erik Gonzalez followed with a double and scored on a single from Jacob Stallings to make it 4-0. Josh Bell chopped a single the other way, allowing two more to score. And Moran drove another high fastball out to center for a 7-0 Pirates lead.
They would score two more on Polanco's bases-loaded walk and a groundout to third from Gonzalez before the inning came to a close.
The Reds (8-11) answered with a run-scoring single from Senzel in the bottom half. Senzel added a two-run shot off Williams in the fourth and finished with three hits and four RBIs.
It was a strong start for Williams, who earned his first win of the season. The right-hander worked five innings and allowed three earned runs on seven hits. He had no problem challenging Reds hitters with his fastball; three of his four strikeouts came on four-seamers, the other on a sinker.
In 10 career starts against Cincinnati, Williams is now 6-1 with a 2.31 ERA.
