CINCINNATI — The magic that marked the Pirates’ opening day victory against the Reds did not return. There were no dashes around the basepaths, no crucial, late-inning plays. In fact, the flicker of offense that existed at the beginning of this one didn’t last long at all.
Pittsburgh had just one hit — and one baserunner — after the third inning and went down quietly 6-2 to the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, evening their season-opening series at one win apiece.
After grinding out several at-bats and forcing the opposing starter, Nick Lodolo, to throw 35 pitches in the opening frame, the Pirates became far too cooperative as the game wore on. Fourteen out of the final 15 Pirates failed to hit the ball out of the infield.
“We scored some runs early, but we need to keep it going,” Carlos Santana said of the Pirates trailing 3-2 before the Reds enjoyed a three-run sixth. “We didn’t put our heads down. We fought every inning. [Sunday] is a new day. Try to take two of three in the series.”
On the flip side, the Reds used a couple of loud swings to score their runs, all of them coming via homers. Jonathan India, Kevin Newman and Jake Fraley did the honors there.
Perhaps knowing Pirates starter Rich Hill was going to fill up the zone, India pounced on the fourth pitch the veteran left-hander threw: a 2-1 fastball atop the zone that the Reds second baseman drove over the fence in left-center.
A little later, something even more improbable happened. Newman, the former Pirate who had a sub-.600 OPS in 2020 and ’21 before rebounding some last season (.687), crushed a Hill fastball 405 feet into the second deck in left.
The two-run Newman homer created a 3-1 Reds advantage. Furthermore, it was the fourth-longest homer of Newman’s major league career, topped only by three he hit in a 19-day span back in 2019.
“Didn’t execute in that first inning and they did a good job of jumping all over my stuff, so you tip your hat,” Hill said. “Unfortunately, that was the difference in the game. I've gotta be better moving forward.”
The home runs are going to happen, especially on a windy day in this smaller-than-normal ballpark. However, the Pirates petered out quickly after initially trading blows with the Reds.
They grabbed a 1-0 lead thanks to a two-out rally in the top of the first. It started with an Andrew McCutchen walk before Santana and Connor Joe singled, the latter bouncing a 1-2 changeup back up the middle.
But after Bryan Reynolds singled in the fourth, Reds pitchers finished the game by recording 16 consecutive outs.
“I thought we did a really good job for the first four innings with our approach,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “After that, we got away from it and there were too many quick outs.”
Hill lasted five innings before Shelton had Chase De Jong pitch the sixth inning. De Jong walked leadoff man Wil Myers and gave up a single to Tyler Stephenson before Fraley pounced on a mistake — a 3-1 slider up in the zone — and sent it into the right-field seats for a three-run homer and a 6-2 Reds edge.
ON THE MOUND
Hill wasn’t happy with the execution of his curveball and his ability — or lack thereof — to get ahead with his fastball-curveball combo early on. On the plus side, he steadied himself after that three-run first and didn’t allow a hit the rest of the way.
“It was really just being able to execute pitches and get ahead with the breaking ball,” Hill said. “Utilizing that mix is something that's been beneficial my entire career. That first inning, they came out swinging and did a really good job of attacking the fastball.”
The seven strikeouts Hill recorded pushed him over 1,300 for his career. He’s the 94th pitcher in MLB history to do that. Bit of an odd note: Hill has struck out Myers more than anyone else in his career. With two more Saturday, Myers has struck out a total of 14 times against the veteran lefty.
“That's an individual goal, and that's not why I'm here,” Hill said of surpassing 1,300 punchouts. “I’m here for this group and for Pittsburgh. I want us to win.”
It was a cold day — game-time temperature was just 45 degrees — and that may have led to a slight decrease in velocity for Hill, whose four-seam fastball averaged just 86.6 mph compared to 88.5 mph in 2022.
One of the few bright spots for the Pirates occurred in the eighth inning, when Jose Hernandez made his MLB debut and pitched a scoreless frame. He gave up a single to Newman and threw a wild pitch but got Fraley to bounce out to short to end the threat.
“I still can't believe I pitched in the big leagues [Saturday],” Hernandez said, with major league coach Stephen Morales translating.
AT THE PLATE
So much has been made of Oneil Cruz and exit velocity or the distance of his home runs. Both are fair and fun topics, but what we saw on his RBI single in the third inning also matters.
It traces back to something we saw during spring training and over the first two games of this series: a more disciplined approach at the plate.
Cruz had a tough-but-smart take on an 0-2 curveball out of the zone. He followed by basically flicking his wrists at a 1-2 bender low and away, finding a hole to the left of India and into right-center field.
Combine that with a pair of walks, a sacrifice fly and a loud home run Thursday — really good stuff from Cruz.
“That’s something he’s continuing to work on,” Shelton said of Cruz, who had two hits. “Definitely a positive sign.”
Rodolfo Castro hit lefties (.906 OPS) really well last season but struggled against Reds starter Nick Lodolo, striking out twice. Santana collected a pair of singles, including one that went 104.1 mph in the first inning.
QUOTABLE
“Teams know I throw a lot of strikes, so they're gonna be swinging early. That said, it just comes down to being better.” — Hill
UP NEXT
Vince Velasquez will make his Pirates debut on Sunday against the Reds opposite Graham Ashcraft.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: April 1, 2023, 10:34 p.m.
