Pirates 7, Reds 6: Gutsy Win

The Pittsburgh Pirates came back from a 4-0 deficit on Tuesday night to defeat the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 7-6 at PNC Park. The evening got off to an ugly start, as Pittsburgh starter Jeff Locke allowed 4 straight hits, all singles, to start the game. After Locke got Marlon Byrd to ground into a force out at home plate, Reds shortstop Eugenio Suarez hit what looked like a potential double play ball to first baseman Pedro Alvarez. Unfortunately, shortstop Jordy Mercer threw the ball wildly over the head of Alvarez, and 2 more runs were able to score,  making it 3-0 Reds. It looked like the Reds might run away with the game when they loaded the bases with 1 out in the top of the 2nd, but Locke was able to get Todd Frazier to pop out, and Jay Bruce to ground out, escaping the inning with no damage. The Reds would add another run in the top of the 4th when Billy Hamilton scored on a Jay Bruce ground out. So at this stage of the game, Locke was getting hit left and right, the Pirate offense could not seem to score off of Reds hurler Josh Smith (making his major league debut) despite drawing several walks and getting plenty of men on base. It looked like Pittsburgh was on their way to losing their 4th straight game and falling further back in the NL Central race.

All of that was about to change in the next half-inning. The inning started when Neil Walker drew a walk. Josh Harrison followed with a single to left field, and the Bucs had something brewing with Pedro Alvarez coming to the plate. Alveraz delivered, as he crushed a double off of the center field wall that was only a few feet from going out of the ballpark, and suddenly it was 4-1, with runners on 2nd and 3rd. This set the stage for Francisco Cervelli. The popular Pittsburgh catcher sent a 2-1 pitch over the batters eye in Center Field to tie the game, chasing Smith in the process. The Pirates took the lead when a seemingly routine ground ball by Starling Marte was thrown over the head of first baseman Joey Votto by shortstop Eugenio Suarz, scoring Gregory Polanco from 3rd and giving the Bucs a 5-4 lead. Andrew McCutchen was up next, and he  capped off the big inning by sending a rocket over the left field wall to make it 7-4 Pirates.

That would be all of the offense the Pirates would need, although the Reds did not go away quietly. They got a run back in the 5th off of new Pirate pitcher Rob Scahill, via a Billy Hamilton sac fly. In the 6th, Jay Bruce homered off of Arquimedes Caminero to close the gap to within one, but that's as close as the Reds would get. The biggest defensive play of the night came in the top of the 7th, when Starling Marte made an incredible diving catch off of the bat of Todd Frazier, which kept Billy Hamilton from scoring from 3rd base. Tony Watson and Mark Melancon struck out all 6 combined hitters that they faced in the 8th and 9th, and the Pirates won a thriller, 7-6.

Rob Scahill got the win in relief, while Reds reliever Pedro Villarreal suffered the loss. Mark Melancon picked up his 24th save, and the Pirates are now 40-30, 6 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central and 2 games up on San Francisco for a Wild-Card spot. Gerrit Cole will take his 11-2 record to the mound tonight, trying to give Pittsburgh a much needed series win after an embarrassing 3 game sweep at the hands of the Nationals in D.C.