The Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t score through the first eight innings against the Cincinnati Reds, so their only hope came down to trying to manufacture a run against a pitcher seeking his first save.
Filling in for Emilio Pagan, who had pitched the previous two games, Connor Phillips walked Marcell Ozuna on four pitches then lost a full-count battle with Ryan O’Hearn to put a pair of runners on base.
But Phillips bounced back to prevent the Pirates from scoring and preserve a 2-0 win for the Reds in the series opener between the NL Central rivals Monday night at Great American Ball Park.
Braxton Ashcraft tossed a career-high six innings for the first quality start of his career, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts over a career-high 87 pitches. Afterward, Ashcraft was more concerned with the free passes.
“I’ve got to be in the zone more, give the guys more opportunities to make plays,” Ashcraft said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “Walks don’t allow them to do that. I have to eliminate those.”
Reds starter Chase Burns was even better, holding the Pirates to one hit and three walks while striking out seven in five innings.
“We know the velo on the heater,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He was able to get his off-speed pitches and his slider in the zone and kept us off-balance there. He’s obviously got an elite fastball.”
With two outs in the first inning, Ashcraft walked Elly De La Cruz, who raced from first to third on a single through the middle by Sal Stewart. De La Cruz might have tried to score if not for the throw by Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz. The Pirates got a break when Eugenio Suarez hit a dribbler in front of the plate and was tagged out by catcher Henry Davis.
De La Cruz hit a leadoff single in the fourth, only to be thrown out while attempting to steal second by Davis. But Stewart drew a walk, advanced to third on an Eugenio Suarez single and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Spencer Steer to give the Reds a 1-0 lead. Will Benson doubled down the right-field line, and Suarez scored when Brandon Lowe’s relay throw sailed wide of Davis at home plate to make it 2-0.
“It’s nice to go six innings, but ultimately it doesn’t matter,” Ashcraft said. “That fourth inning kind of bit us in the butt. Made the pitches we wanted to Benson, and he put a good swing on it. That’s baseball.”
Burns allowed only a walk through the first four innings before Spencer Horwitz started the fifth with a single to right. Nick Gonzales grounded into a 5-4 forceout then stole second base, but Burns struck out Davis and Cruz to end the frame.
O’Hearn extended his MLB-best active hitting streak to 13 games (dating to last season) with a single to right off reliever Jose Franco to start the seventh. Gonzales hit a two-out grounder under the glove of two-time Gold Glove former Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to move O’Hearn into scoring position, but the Reds brought in Graham Ashcraft and he got Davis swinging at a slider to keep the Pirates scoreless.
The Pirates went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight on base.After putting a pair of runners on base in the ninth, Phillips got Jared Triolo looking at a called third strike, then got Horwitz to fly out to left before Gonzales hit a pop fly to shallow right that Reds second baseman Matt McLain caught to end the game.
“Just trying to go for the win there. Just continuing to stay within ourselves,” Kelly said. “That’s the thing: When you start to press, you get outside of the approach. That’s what it looked like to me after those two walks.”