The Reds came from behind to tie things up, but a defensive misplay by Max Schrock in the bottom of the 9th led the Pirates to walk things off and beat Cincinnati 5-4 on Wednesday night.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (75-71) | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates (54-91) | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| W: Stratton (6-1) L: Givens (3-3) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
Jonathan India got the game started right with a single into center. Max Schrock followed up with a walk to put two men on. After India moved up on a fly out to deep center by Nick Castellanos, he scored on a ground out by Joey Votto. Mike Moustakas followed up with an RBI single to bring in Schrock to give the Reds a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the 3rd inning the Reds tried to get something going again. With two outs Nick Castellanos singled. Joey Votto followed up with a double to a sliding Ben Gamel, who grabbed the ball while sitting on his butt in foul territory and fired it to the infield, where the relay then easily beat Castellanos to the plate to end the threat and the inning.
It wasn’t until the 7th inning that the Reds offense got things going again. Tucker Barnhart was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. That brought Shogo Akiyama to the plate and he singled on a ground ball between 1st and 2nd. It was Akiyama’s first hit in a literal month, snapping an 0-18 streak. With runners on the corners Jonathan India came through with a sacrifice fly to bring the Reds within a run, trailing 4-3. Max Schrock singled to keep things going, but Nick Castellanos grounded out to end the inning.
Things weren’t looking great in the 8th inning as Joey Votto and Mike Moustakas both failed to reach base against a lefty. That brought Kyle Farmer to the plate with another lefty on deck. The Pirates chose to pitch to Farmer instead of pitch around him and they paid dearly for that mistake as he hit a laser into the left field stands to tie the game up at 4-4.
Cincinnati’s offense went quietly in the top of the 9th, giving the Pirates an opportunity to walk things off with just one run in the bottom half….. and that’s exactly what happened. In the most painful way possible.
The Pitching
Vladimir Gutierrez worked around a walk in the 1st inning. The next inning wasn’t quite as easy as Jacob Stallings doubled to lead off the 2nd. But three straight ground outs allowed the Reds to escape and hold onto a 2-0 lead.
The 3rd inning, however, didn’t go the way Gutierrez and the Reds. Mitch Keller, the opposing pitcher, led off with a single. Ke’Bryan Hayes grounded into a force out and then stole second base. The Pirates then went double, triple, and sacrifice fly to make it a 3-2 game. In the 4th inning he would walk Hoy Park to lead off the inning before getting the next two outs, though Park moved up a base with each out. With lefty Yoshi Tsutsugo coming up, manager David Bell went to the bullpen and called on Justin Wilson. The first pitch he threw was lined into center and the Pirates padded their lead to make it 4-2. The next pitch was grounded to shortstop to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
Tony Santillan pitched scoreless 5th and 6th innings and picked up two strikeouts along the way. Michael Lorenzen then took over for the 7th inning and worked around a leadoff bloop single to keep the score 4-3 with the Pirates still in front.
After Kyle Farmer’s game-tying homer in the top of the 8th the Reds turned things over to Lucas Sims to keep things tied up. He did just that, striking out two in a perfect frame.
Mychael Givens came on for the bottom of the 9th inning. Ke’Bryan Hayes grounded out to Jonathan India to start the inning, but a blooper down the line in left field by Wilmer Difo was over ran by Max Schrock who whiffed on the catch, saw it land fair, then bounce into the stands for a ground-rule double to put the winning run on second base. An intentional walk to Bryan Reynolds brought Colin Moran to the plate. He grounded the ball hard to Joey Votto, who made a sliding stop and fired to first to a covering Givens to get the out, but Difo never stopped running from second, rounded third and beat the throw home from Givens with a head first slide to win the game.
Notes Worth Noting
Jonathan India of the @Reds is the first rookie in MLB history to have at least 20 HR, 20 HBP and 10 SB in a season.
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) September 16, 2021
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