Glasnow Implodes As Pittsburgh Pirates Lose Game One Against The Reds

The Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night

Monday night was Tyler Glasnow‘s first start of the 2017 season. Unfortunately, it went horribly. This led to the Pirate losing to the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 7-1 on Monday night in game one of their three-game series.

With the loss, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now 3-3 this season. Meanwhile, the Reds continue their surprisingly hot start as they are now 5-2 through the season’s first week-plus.

Tyler Glasnow allowed a single to Billy Hamilton, who continues to kill the Pirates despite being a terrible hitter, to lead off the game. Then, he got Jose Peraza to pop out to second base. After this, Glasnow would completely implode.

Glasnow would then walk the next four Cincinnati hitters. This included back-to-back walks with the bases loaded. He would then induce a pair of ground balls to get out of the inning. However, it was not before the Pirates were trailing 3-0.

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In a surprising move, Glasnow came out to start the second inning. He would allow a one-out single to Hamilton, a RBI single to Jose Peraza, a strikeout of Joey Votto, and then a RBI single to Adam Duvall.

After allowing the RBI single to Duvall Glasnow would be lifted for Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc would then get the final out of the second inning.

Tyler Glasnow’s final stat line was ugly. In 1 2/3 innings pitched he allowed five runs on four hits, five walks, and just one strikeout. It was a very ugly outing for Glasnow and one that was hard to watch. He had zero control and you could not help but feel bad for him.

Cincinnati starting pitcher Brandon Finnegan was not much better than Glasnow on Monday night. Finnegan would pitch into the third inning, without recording an out, and he walked four batters. Finnegan allowed the leadoff runner to reach in each of the first three innings and twice loaded the bases with no one out.

Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Pirates could not take advantage.

Jordy Mercer walked to lead off the bottom of the first and then Starling Marte singled. Finnegan would then retire the next three batters to keep the Pirates off the board.

After a walk to Francisco Cervelli, a single by Josh Bell, and a walk by Adam Frazier, the Pirates had the bases loaded with no one out in the bottom of the second inning. However, Finnegan would strikeout Wade LeBlanc (#FreeTheDH), Jordy Mercer, and then get Starling Marte to ground out. Keeping the Pirates off the board.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Pirates once again loaded the bases with no one out. After walking David Freese to load the bases, Finnegan would walk Francisco Cervelli to bring in a run and cut the Cincinnati lead to 5-1.

This led to Reds’ manager Bryan Price pulling Finnegan for Michael Lorenzen. At this point, the Pirate offense crapped the bed once again. Josh Bell hit a fly ball to shallow center field that could not score Gregory Polanco from third base, Adam Frazier reached on a fielder’s choice (with Polanco being thrown out at home), and LeBlanc struck out.

Not sending Polanco from third was not a good move by third base coach Joey Cora. You should always run on Billy Hamilton’s weak arm, especially when it is Gregory Polanco. But it’s all a moot point now.

After entering the game, Michael Lorenzen would settle things down for the Reds. After stranding the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, he retired the next six Pirate batters he faced. He then gave way to Cody Reed in the bottom of the sixth inning. Reed would pick up where Lorenzen left off and help contribute to Reds’ pitching retiring the final 21 Pirate batters of the evening.

The work Wade LeBlanc did on Monday night can not be overlooked. In 5 1/3 innings pitched LeBlanc allowed just one hit, a solo home run by Eugenio Suarez in the fifth inning, and he did not walk a batter.

Most importantly, LeBlanc saved the Pirate bullpen. Neither Felipe Rivero nor Trevor Williams was available on Monday night so Clint Hurdle needed length from Wade LeBlanc, and he got just that.

Antonio Bastardo took over in the eighth inning and allowed a solo home run to Scooter Gennett. This extended the Reds’ lead to 7-1. Despite loading the bases, Bastardo would pitch a scoreless ninth inning.

While Tyler Glasnow was a mess on Monday night, an argument can be made that the Pirates’ inability to get a big hit was as big a reason that they lost. The Pirates could, and probably should, have scored a lot of runs in the first three innings. Had this happened, who knows how the rest of the game would have unfolded.

Next: Analyzing The Starts This Past Weekend

Game two of this three-game set is scheduled for 7:05 PM tomorrow night. Jameson Taillon, coming off a dazzling start against the Boston Red Sox, will make his second start of the 2017 season. He will be opposed by Rookie Davis.

This will be the second start of the season, and career, of Rookie Davis. He allowed four runs on five hits and two walks in three innings of work in his first career start against the Phillies last week.