Happy Mother’s Day to all those celebrating today. On the diamond, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds were wrapping up a weekend series at Great American Ballpark. Coming into the weekend, this looked to be a series Pittsburgh could pad their stats and improve their record. Cincinnati had other plans, as they ended up taking two out of three games after grabbing a 7-3 victory today.
The Pirates got a strong start from pitcher Zach Thompson today. He would throw five innings and allow just two hits with six strikeouts. With how the bullpen handled the final three innings, it was easy to wonder why Thompson wasn’t allowed to go back out for the sixth inning after just throwing 79 pitches.
Pittsburgh held the lead while Thompson was on the bump. They took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when the recently called up Michael Perez hit a two-run shot to right center field. Perez was called up yesterday from AAA Indianapolis after catcher Roberto Perez suffered a hamstring injury yesterday during game one of the doubleheader. Pitcher Sam Howard was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
The sixth inning is when the Reds took control of the game and it was a familiar face who did the most damage. A bases loaded walk to Tommy Pham got Cincinnati on the board. The bases were still loaded when Colin Moran stepped to the plate and launched a 390ft. home run to right field. Four of the five Reds runs this inning were charged to Dillion Peters, while the home run hit by Moran was given up by Heath Hembree.
The Pirates jumped on the scoreboard one more time in the eighth with a solo home run by Bryan Reynolds. Moran would strike again for Cincinnati in the bottom half of the inning when he hit a two-run home run that traveled 400ft.
Very disappointing to see Pittsburgh drop two of three games from a team that was in last place. It will not get any easier for them tomorrow night when they return to PNC Park to begin a three-game series with the best team in the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Record vs. Reds: 1-2
Record vs. N.L. Central: 6-12
Record on the Road: 6-9
Overall Record: 11-16
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
