PITTSBURGH — Surely JT Brubaker had seen the numbers.
Probably required an antacid tablet or two after witnessing what the Reds had done against Pirates pitching this season, too, scoring 44 runs over four games while hitting a total of 10 home runs. Aside from that, Cincinnati’s bats have been fairly quiet.
In his first start of the season, Brubaker actually handled Cincinnati well, allowing a run over four innings before the Pittsburgh bullpen faltered late. But with his team needing someone to do something good against what can be a dangerous Reds lineup, Brubaker came through in a big way.
The same as he’s done a lot this season, honestly, as the 27-year-old has been one of the Pirates’ few bright spots.
Brubaker worked six innings and allowed just one run during the Pirates’ 7-2 victory over the Reds on Tuesday at PNC Park, which served as their first win over Cincinnati this season.
The Pirates are now just 3-9 since winning three in a row and surging to a game over .500 (12-11) on April 27.
Brubaker, meanwhile, has been charged with two or fewer earned runs in six of his first seven starts. In some of those, he’s been downright dominant, using a diverse pitch mix led by a nasty slider. In others, Brubaker has simply been a little slippery when encountering trouble, pitching to a .103 average against with runners in scoring position before Tuesday.
This wasn’t the bend-but-don’t-break streak for Brubaker. After Winker’s homer, he settled into a really nice groove, retiring 11 of the final 12 men he faced to complete at least six innings for the third time this season and first since going seven innings April 23 at Minnesota.
Against the Reds, Brubaker had some of the best command we’ve seen from him this season, and he allowed five hits, walked one and struck out four during his six innings of one-run ball.
Unlike some of his previous starts, Brubaker didn’t rely a ton on his spin pitches against the Reds. He threw just 29 sliders and curveballs combined out of his 80 pitches, which is about seven fewer than he’s averaged per game over that same number of pitches in 2021.
Instead, Brubaker went with the harder stuff — his sinker and four-seamer — to get a bunch of called strikes, 19 in total.
Left fielder Jesse Winker crushed an elevated fastball from Winker, but second baseman Nick Senzel had the only other hard-hit ball (95 mph exit velocity) that fell in, singling in the third. Jacob Stallings erased Senzel with a strong throw down to second on a steal attempt.
The Pirates actually jumped out to 1-0 lead in the first thanks in part to two players who’ve been their most productive of late and also a little luck. Frazier led off with a single, stretching his hitting streak to an MLB-best 12 games. Bryan Reynolds followed with a ground-rule double to left.
It was the seventh double for Reynolds in eight games in May, and the Pirates center fielder scampered home on a wild pitch.
Winker has absolutely destroyed fastballs this season and entered Tuesday’s game hitting .426 and slugging .750 against them. Brubaker made it easy when he missed with a full-count sinker, leaving it over the heart of the plate in the third inning.
Winker hit it 438 feet at 107.9 mph to tie the game at 1 in the third, but the Pirates regained the lead by plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Kevin Newman, who had reached base safely in 11 of his last 12 starts, drove a first-pitch fastball to center field, scoring Ka’ai Tom. For Newman, it was just his fourth extra-base hit of the year and first triple.
The Pirates made it a 3-1 game when Stokes Jr. picked up his first big league hit, a single on a sharp line to left that easily scored Newman.
Phillip Evans helped stretch Pittsburgh’s advantage to 4-1 in the fifth inning. After Reynolds led off with a walk — his seventh consecutive plate appearance reaching base after returning to the starting lineup Monday — Evans crushed a 3-1 fastball to center field for the hardest hit ball (109.1 mph) ball of the game. It was the first extra-base hit for Evans in his past 15 games (13 starts).
The Reds got one run back off David Bednar in the seventh inning, as Senzel singled to lead off the inning and Winker doubled for his third extra-base hit of the game.
