Noelvi Marte and Spencer Steer’s bats caught fire today to lead the Cincinnati Reds over the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-8, before 21,339 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
Final
R
H
E
Cincinnati Reds (62-57)
14
14
1
Pittsburgh Pirates (51-68)
8
16
0
W: Barlow (6-0) L: Y. Ramirez (1-1)
Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread
Both Marte and Steer had three hits, including a homer, and drove in four runs. Time and again, their run production helped Cincinnati respond to constant pressure applied by the Pirates’ offense. Pittsburgh had 21 base runners over nine innings.
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the New York Mets today, 7-6. That keeps the games-behind margin in the division at 12, as the Brewers may never lose again. Today’s win was their ninth in a row. On the other hand, the Mets have lost seven in a row and nine of their last 10. The loss drops their lead over the Reds for the third and final Wild Card berth to only one and a half games — the closest the Reds have been in awhile. The next six games at home are going to be important (more below), but with the standings as they are currently, every single game is important.
The Offense
Cincinnati’s very impressive team hitting line score: 14-for-40 (.350), 6 walks received, 10 strikeouts and 8 runs. With runners in scoring position, Reds batters were 5-for-13 (.385).
Cincinnati took the first lead of the game in the top of the third. Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled with one out. An out later, Gavin Lux walked. Elly De La Cruz poked one to right for a single that scored Hayes for a 1-0 Reds lead. Miguel Andujar followed by crushing a Mike Burrows high slider, off the bat at 109 mph, into the left-field stands for a rare (recently) Reds home run and a 4-0 lead. In fact, it was the first Reds home run in their past nine games at PNC Park.
In a tie game, De La Cruz greeted Pittsburgh reliever Johan Ramirez with a single to lead off the top of the sixth. Andujar followed with a single to right that sent De La Cruz to third. Austin Hays’ struggles continued, as he struck out for the third time in the game for the first out. Marte picked him up, though, with a ground-rule double over left fielder Tommy Pham’s head in left. Marte’s fourth double in the last two games scored De La Cruz, sent Andujar to third and put the Reds back up, 5-4. Spencer Steer then doubled off the wall in right-center to score Andujar and Marte to make it 7-4 Reds.
In the seventh, still facing Ramirez, T.J. Friedl drew a leadoff walk, and went to second on a wild pitch. Lux’s grounder to the right side advanced Friedl to third. De La Cruz drew a walk, prompting Pittsburgh Manager Don Kelly to bring on righthander Dauri Moreta, the former Red, to face Andujar. He struck out swinging, and the inning ended on a Hays groundout.
In the eighth, Marte singled and Steer followed with his 14th homer of the year to left-center to make it 9-5 Reds. After Pittsburgh closed the deficit to one run in the bottom of the eighth, righty Cam Sanders entered to pitch the ninth. Andujar walked and Hays looped a single over shortstop with one out. Marte then launched one over the center-field fence 427 feet away to make it 12-8 Reds. The next two hitters, Steer and Jose Trevino, legged out infield hits. A walk to Hayes then loaded the bases. Righty Isaac Matson then relieved Sanders to face Friedl, who drew a walk to force in run number 13. He was the seventh straight runner to reach. McLain hit a sacrifice fly to make it 14-8.
In the past two games, Marte has four doubles, a home run (his eighth), and five RBI. He’s raised his batting average to .287 and his OPS to .837 — both are best on the team. It’s probably time to get him somewhere in top five of the batting order.
The Pitching
The Reds’ team pitching line in the box score: 9 innings, 16 hits, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts and 6 earned runs (2 unearned).
Starter Zack Littell retired the first four batters of the game, but found himself in a jam after two light-contact Pirate hits, and a fielder’s choice on a ground ball up the middle that second baseman Lux and shortstop De La Cruz miscommunicated on, resulting in no outs. That loaded the bases with Pirates in the second inning with one out. But Littell struck out the next two batters swinging to end the threat.
The fourth inning was difficult, as Littell allowed three runs on four hits — three at 97.7 mph or more, cutting the Reds’ lead at the time to 4-3. Then in the fifth, two of the first three Pirates reached on a single and double, respectively, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position with one out. A Jack Suwinski grounder to second scored the tying run, and Manager Terry Francona removed Littell after 4 2/3 innings in favor of Scott Barlow. Barlow struck out Jared Triolo swinging with the go-ahead run at third to end the inning and keep the score tied. The pitch sequence to Triolo was seven consecutive sliders.
After his teammates scored three runs in the top of the sixth to take a 7-4 lead, Barlow allowed back-to-back Pittsburgh singles to start the bottom half of the inning. Francona summoned Sam Moll to face lefthanded batting Spencer Horwitz, who struck out swinging. Tommy Pham then hit into an inning-ending double play.
After a walk to Bryan Reynolds and a strikeout of Oneil Cruz in the seventh, Moll was removed for righthander Luis Mey. After recording an out on a grounder, Mey walked three consecutive Pittsburgh hitters to force in the fifth Pittsburgh run. Mey — who threw only five strikes in 19 pitches — was replaced by Graham Ashcraft. He retired Isiah Kiner-Falefa on a flyout to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.
The Pirates put their first two eighth-inning runners on via a double and single against Ashcraft. After a flyout, Cruz grounded a hit to right to bring Pittsburgh within 9-6. A walk to Nick Gonzales then loaded the bases. Suwinski then hit a liner to Matt McLain, who had come in for defensive purposes. He caught the shot, then threw toward second to try to double up the runner there, but the ball went over De La Cruz and into left field. Two Pirate runners scored on the error to make it 9-8. Ashcraft recovered to strike out Triolo with the tying run at second to end the inning.
One fan’s thoughts
It’s probably wrong to call the current Reds playoff hopes as a pennant race, because it’s clear that Milwaukee or Chicago is going to win the National League Central Division. So one of those two teams is going to win that particular “pennant.” Milwaukee is 12 ahead of the Reds with 43 games left on the Cincinnati schedule.
The forthcoming week will be interesting and challenging. The Reds begin a six-game homestand: three against the Phillies (who have won seven of nine) and three against Milwaukee — the first-place teams in the NL East and Central divisions, respectfully.
The Reds are 11-41 this season in games when they score three or fewer runs, and 51-16 when they score four or more. There really is no clearer indication of what this team has to do to win. As we mentioned last week in this space, some Reds hitter is going to have to shift into a higher production gear for this team to have a shot. They’re averaging 4.45 runs per game, which is why they’re above .500. But we’ve seen some streaks of more than a day or two in which this team’s bats go quiet. Hopefully Andujar is the piece that’s been missing. Or maybe Marte is experiencing a bat breakout that will move him into a higher tier of hitting production.
The starting pitching is top-tier, but the relief staff after Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan and Barlow is shaky, as we saw today. Five Pirates batters drew walks, all against the relief staff. A team trying to make the playoffs can’t be putting Mey in important spots, and I’ve been saying the same about Ashcraft.
But there really is nobody at Louisville ready to step in. When Greene gets back into the rotation, it seems that either Nick Martinez or Chase Burns will move to the bullpen. Then when Nick Lodolo returns, the other seems likely to make that move.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Philadelphia Phillies at Cincinnati Reds
Monday, August 11, 7:10 p.m. ET
Taijuan Walker (4-5, 3.53 ERA) vs. Andrew Abbott (8-2, 2.34 ERA)
