Glasnow gets first win
The Pirates (12-14) scored six runs in the fourth, fueled by Josh Harrison’s three-run homer, and plated five more runs in the seventh. Reds right-hander Scott Feldman lasted only four innings, allowing six hits, two walks and seven runs. The bullpen crumbled in the seventh.
Glasnow’s first innings this season have been extremely poor. In his five starts, he has thrown between 23 and 43 pitches in the first inning. So the 36 pitches Glasnow spent in the first frame Tuesday was nothing new. The manner in which he spent them, however, was gruesome.
“It’s kind of a theme in all my starts this year,” Glasnow said. “I’ve had a lot of practice with it.”
Billy Hamilton walked leading off and swiftly stole second and third base. Zack Cozart walked on nine pitches. Votto detonated an 0-1 fastball off the facade high above the center-field wall for his ninth home run this season. Glasnow kicked at the dirt, and then walked the next batter.
“He was in a tough spot,” Hurdle said. “It was fight or flight.”
Beyond the first inning, Glasnow was in command, scattering just two hits and a walk the rest of the way. He struck out the side on 11 pitches in the second, and he used only five pitches in a 1-2-3 fifth. After a leadoff single in the sixth, Glasnow got two strikeouts and a ground out.
The Pirates offense registered two 1-2-3 innings to start the game and roared to life in the third, when Alen Hanson kick-started the charge by tripling and scoring on Jordy Mercer’s double.
The six-run fourth-inning rally began when Andrew McCutchen drew a leadoff walk, extending his on-base streak at Great American Ball Park to 32 games, dating to Sept. 27, 2013. John Jaso, batting cleanup for the first time in his Pirates career, roped his first of two doubles in the game, and McCutchen scored on Jose Osuna’s fielder’s choice grounder.
After Hanson singled, the Reds intentionally walked Mercer, loading the bases. Glasnow swatted Feldman’s first-pitch fastball up the middle for a tworun, go-ahead single. The Pirates’ lead jumped to 7-3 when the next batter, Harrison, launched a three-run home run to left field.
Harrison has four home runs in his past three games in his hometown Cincinnati. Harrison, batting .310, has five homers this season, one more than he had in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Josh Bell committed the first and third outs in the seventh, as the Pirates batted around and built a fiverun inning on three hits and four walks. Gift Ngoepe drove in two with a single off the shortstop Cozart’s glove, and Mercer, Glasnow and Harrison walked in succession. Ngoepe scored on a wild pitch by former Pirates minor leaguer Blake Wood, and Mercer on a passed ball.
“The one thing I’ve found out after 26 games is we’re really interesting,” Hurdle said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know I’m going to show up to watch it.”