After winning on the Opening Day the Pittsburgh Pirates have now lost three games in a row
Following their third consecutive loss, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now just 1-3 this season. While the Pirates jumped out to a 2-0 lead against the Cincinnati Reds in the 1st inning on Monday night, it was not enough as the Pirates were defeated by a score of 5-3.
Bats get it going early…
The Pittsburgh Pirates offense did not waste any time to get it going. In the 1st inning Phillip Evans and Colin Moran both went deep to give JT Brubaker a 2-0 lead before he started his day on the mound. Evans crushed a 86 mph changeup to left-center field for his 1st homer of the season. Two batters later, Moran hammered a first pitch slider to right-center field for his 2nd homer of the season.
But it all went downhill after that
Up until the 9th inning the Pirates could only manage to get one hit after the 1st inning. This hit was a lead off single by Brubaker in the 3rd inning for his first career MLB hit. Congrats to JT for that!
9th inning rally falls short
The Pittsburgh Pirates came into the 9th inning trailing 5-2, but they would not go down without a fight. Bryan Reynolds hit his 1st homer of the season off of Amir Garrett to start the inning. A Moran single and Jacob Stallings walk brought the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs, but Garrett got Kevin Newman to ground out to end the game.
Pitching had some bright spots but was overall average at best
Brubaker started the game but only pitched 4 innings. He had 6 strikeouts which was good, but he issued 4 walks and the run he allowed scored due to Brubaker allowing a base hit to opposing starting pitcher Jose De Leon.
Following Brubaker, young righty Luis Oviedo came in and pitched 2 innings while racking up 4 strikeouts. His only blemish of the day was the game tying home run by Mike Moustakas. After impressing in his MLB debut this past Saturday, Oviedo was impressive once again and is emerging as an intriguing young arm for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The third pitcher of the day for the Pirates was Sam Howard. Howard pitched 1 inning and struck out two batters. Like Oviedo, Howards only blemish was a home run. This one was a go ahead one given up to Nick Castellanos.
The last pitcher of the day for the Pittsburgh Pirates was Michael Feliz. Feliz had the worst outing out of all the pitchers, as he allowed 2 insurance runs to the Reds that proved to be costly as the Pirates came up two runs short of the ninth inning comeback.
Whats up next for the Pirates
The Pirates play the Reds again on Tuesday night as they look to even up the series. This matchup is set to pin righty Trevor Cahill against Cincinnati’s southpaw Wade Miley. This game is set for a first pitch of 6:40 EST.