It’s been a busy week for Bryan Reynolds.
On Sunday, before the Pirates’ matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers, Reynolds was placed on the paternity list and flew back to Pittsburgh. On Monday, Reynolds’ wife, Blair, had the couple’s first child, a boy named Reese.
Reynolds returned to the Pirates’ lineup Thursday against the Chicago Cubs. In his first at-bat, he doubled to the wall in right center field. He dwarfed that effort in his next at-bat.
With the Pirates trailing by one in the bottom of the third, Reynolds stepped up with two runners on and ripped a ball 397 feet over the right field wall. On both hits, Reynolds cradled his arms and mimed rocking a baby.
His offense was a jump start, and it was all the Pirates needed. They added two more runs in the sixth, and the pitching staff shut down the Cubs’ offense the rest of the game, salvaging one game from the three-game series and beating the Cubs, 6-2, to snap a three-game losing streak.
“I felt good out there. But the homer you’ve got to attribute to dad strength, for sure,” Reynolds said. “... I got in from Milwaukee at like 2 p.m. I went to the hospital, then my wife had him at 3 a.m. So we were hanging out at the hospital for quite a while. But she crushed it. She was walking around an hour after. I think that night, we might’ve got an hour of sleep, if that. The first night at home, he didn’t really want to sleep at all. But last night was good, so we’re making progress.”
Added manager Derek Shelton: “If he hasn't got any sleep, maybe we're just gonna go sleep deprivation on him and not let him sleep the whole month of September.”
The afternoon ended with a strong starting pitching performance from right-hander JT Brubaker, who earned his first career win. It did get off to a bit of a shaky start, though.
After a 1-2-3 first inning, Brubaker allowed two singles and a walk to give up a run in the second. Another single and a double put runners in scoring position in the third. An ugly error from third baseman JT Riddle, where he struggled to get a grip on a groundball and threw it over first baseman Colin Moran’s head, allowed another run to score with nobody out.
Brubaker got out of that jam without incurring further damage, though, forcing Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo to groundout and then getting two swinging strikeouts from shortstop Javier Baez and left fielder Kyle Schwarber to end the inning.
Three singles in the fourth caused no damage thanks to a double play, and the fifth was straight forward as could be. In the end, it was a scrappy but solid, five-inning, five-strikeout effort.
“My confidence is there. I've always felt like it's been there,” Brubaker said. “Just making sure I don't get too big. When I get too big, I get too fine, I miss the zone. Today I felt like I was in the zone quite a bit. That's really just where I need to be, that even-keel of confident, let my stuff play and keep it around the zone. At least middle-down.”
Lefty Sam Howard allowed the Cubs to load the bases in the sixth, but he and right-hander Geoff Hartlieb combined to get out of that jam, too.
Hartlieb, left-hander Nik Turley and righty Richard Rodriguez had no trouble in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
With that, the Pirates wouldn’t have needed any insurance runs, but they got them anyway in the sixth, when right fielder Cole Tucker blooped a single into left field to score second baseman Adam Frazier and Riddle.
The Pirates will begin a four-game series against the Cincinnati Reds with a doubleheader Friday. The win gives them a good feeling heading into that.
As for Reynolds, he’ll hope to use Thursday as a catapult to stronger results than he’s enjoyed so far this year. As for the shelf life of his rocking-the-baby celebration?
“TBD,” Reynolds said. “We’ll see. ... Let it be organic, see what happens.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: September 3, 2020, 9:02 p.m.
