PITTSBURGH _ Precedent pointed to a Pirates win. Reality did not cooperate.
In their past seven doubleheaders, the Pirates had gone 12-2. They were 11-2 in their last 13 games against the Reds at PNC Park, while pitching-wise, Steven Brault was 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA against Cincinnati in his career. Reds starter Luis Castillo (0-5), meanwhile, came into this one winless in seven starts this season.
None of that mattered.
Castillo gave the Reds six strong innings, Brault allowed his first home run of the year, and the Pirates dropped a 4-2 decision (seven innings) to the Reds in Game 1 of their doubleheader Friday.
"I feel like we did have some good at-bats," Pirates center fielder Cole Tucker said. "We just didn't piece together what we needed to. We had guys on. We just didn't come through. Hopefully in the second game we will."
Brault lasted 4 2/3 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and a pair of walks. Although Brault struck out six and looked sharp at times, he also gave up his first home run of the season, a solo shot to right fielder Nick Castellanos in the fifth inning.
Brault left a slider out over the middle of the plate, and Castellanos knocked the 1-1 pitch into the bullpens.
"I just threw it right down the middle," Brault said. "The idea was to get low and in, get a rollover ground ball. ... It's the big leagues. You make mistakes, sometimes people take advantage."
The toughest part for Brault was that Castellanos' homer was one of the only balls the Reds hit hard. Aside from Castellanos, the Reds hit just two more balls that carried an exit velocity of more than 100 mph _ and one of those was an out.
"Death by a thousand cuts there," Brault said.
Castillo looked nothing like someone who was still searching for his first win. The right-hander gave the Pirates fits with his changeup and averaged 98 mph with his fastball. He wound up striking out eight.
"He's obviously a really good pitcher for a reason," Tucker said. "The difference between his fastball and changeup is perfect for what he's trying to do."
The Pirates had a chance to inflict some damage early, when they had men on second and third with nobody out in the second. But Josh Bell flied out to left, Colin Moran was thrown out while trying to score, and Tucker bounced to second, ending the threat.
The Reds grabbed a 1-0 lead when Brault found some two-out trouble in the second, some of it his own doing, but also another instance of the Pirates struggling on defense.
After Brault plunked center fielder Aristides Aquino in the thigh, Bell missed a ball while ranging to his right, the grounder from Reds catcher Curt Casali ticking off his mitt far enough that Kevin Newman didn't have much of a play.
Shortstop Jose Garcia picked up his first major league RBI with a liner to left.
First baseman Joey Votto and Castellanos led off the third inning with back-to-back singles. The second of those looked worrisome for Erik Gonzalez, who was grabbing at his left side after diving.
Third baseman Eugenio Suarez extended Cincinnati's lead to 2-0 with a sacrifice fly. Left fielder Jesse Winker scored another with his bloop single, the ball dropping between Tucker in center and Gonzalez, who broke his collarbone on a similar play last year.
Tucker blamed himself, saying he should have been playing in, called off Gonzalez and taken charge. Nevertheless, the ball found the grass at an inopportune time.
"It's a perfect dropped-in ball," Tucker said. "It happens."
Brault didn't blame his fielders but also wasn't a fan of so many weak hits falling.
"It's frustrating to get the weak contact that just happens to go to the right spot over and over and over again," Brault said.
The Pirates answered with a two-run third. Gonzalez hit a one-out double, Bryan Reynolds walked, and Moran drove in a run with a single the other way. The single gave Moran hits in 12 of his previous 24 at-bats (.500).
Another hitter who has found some traction of late drove in the Pirates' second run. Gregory Polanco, who enjoyed his third consecutive multi-hit game, doubled to right-center to score Reynolds, his second two-bagger of the afternoon.
That was pretty much it for the Pirates' offense.
Ke'Bryan Hayes and Tucker had back-to-back singles to start the fourth, but Gonzalez hit into an inning-ending double play. The Pirates weren't able to do anything productive with Adam Frazier's pinch-hit single in the seventh.
