Pittsburgh Pirates Drop Rubber Match Against Reds in Extra Innings

Wednesday afternoon the Pittsburgh Pirates suffered an extra innings loss and in turn a series loss against the Cincinnati Reds

In a series at has been full of lopsided blowouts, 14-1 in favor of the Reds, then a 7-2 blowout in favor of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wednesday afternoon the two teams played a tight game that was closer than the 5-1 final score indicates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates fell to the Reds by a final of 5-1 in 10 innings. While this may not look close, the Pirates and Reds were all knotted up at one each for the majority of the game. With the loss the Pirates are now 15-21 overall this season and just 1-5 against the Reds.

Streaks broken

Two different streaks were broken today one good and one bad for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The bad news first, Adam Frazier lost his 12 game hitting streak after going 0-3 today. The other broken streak, was the Pirates were able to break Sonny Grays MLB record of 48 straight outings of allowing six or less hits, as the Pirates got 7 hits off of him today.

Bats fall asleep against bullpen and in critical situations

The Pirate bats were once again atrocious when runners were in scoring position, which is starting to become a theme for this team. The Pittsburgh Pirates were 1-for-13 when they had runners in scoring position today. The only hit was in the bottom of the fifth when Gregory Polanco hit a single to score Kevin Newman to tie the game at 1-1.

The bats really died off when Gray was taken out of the game, as the could not muster a single hit off of the Reds pen, which ultimately led to them dropping the rubber match of this series.

Trevor Cahill Impresses

Trevor Cahill continued his decent 2021 season with a nice outing today. Cahill pitched 5.1 innings on Wednesday afternoon, while only allowing 1 run. The only run he gave up today was an early solo shot to Mike Moustakas in the top of the 2nd inning.

Other than that solo shot, Cahill was flawless as he only allowed two other hits and no walks at all. On the season Cahill now owns a 5.97 ERA, but a strong 3.82 FIP, 1.04 HR/9 and 5.6% walk rate.

Bullpen pitches well for the most part

The bullpen pitched extremely well from the time Cahill came out up until the start of extras. The combined totals for the bullpen through the end of the ninth inning, was five hits, five strike outs and only two walks.

The even more impressive part was that Sam Howard, Clay Holmes, Chasen Shreve, David Bednar, and Richard Rodríguez all combined to allow zero runs in their combined three and two-thirds innings of relief work.

Duane Underwood Jr. falters in extras

Duane Underwood Jr. had a very rough outing in the 10th on Wednesday afternoon. He gave up 4 runs, one of which being unearned. These runs came off of a Jesse Winker single that scored one, and a Eugenio Suarez bases clearing double. This ended up being too much to come back from as the Pirates ultimately fell to the Reds 5-1 today. A rare poor outing by Underwood Jr. tagged him with the loss.

What’s next?

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue their homestand on Thursday evening as the San Francisco Giants come to town to kick off a four-game series. Thursday night’s match up will see Wil Crowe (0-1 4.02 ERA) face off against Anthony DeSclafani (2-1 2.40 ERA). First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 6:35 PM ET