Gray puts the bats to sleep
Cincinnati pitchers net 13 strikeouts in win
CINCINNATI — Derek Shelton has talked a lot about wanting to learn from Jim Leyland. The current Pirates manager lived out one of Leyland’s favorite phrases Friday night in an 8-1 loss against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Momentum is your next day’s starting pitcher.
Twenty-four hours after the Pirates (4-13) thought their offense had enjoyed some sort of jump-start, it was throttled by the next day’s starting pitcher — in this case, Sonny Gray.
The Reds right-hander and current Major League Baseball leader in strikeouts prevented the Pirates from building on the nine-run outburst they enjoyed in the first game of this series. Although Shelton felt the Pirates had some quality at-bats, the script was ultimately flipped.
“We hit a couple balls hard right at people,” Shelton said. “But we saw Sonny Gray pretty close to his best [Friday].”
The Pirates got an excellent outing from Chad Kuhl in his first true start after Shelton broke up the piggyback with Steven Brault, but it wasn’t enough as the bullpen once again let a close one slip away.
It was a two-run game when Gray left, the Pirates trailing, 3-1. But Chris Stratton gave up four earned runs in a miserable seventh inning, one that featured some smart baserunning from Reds shortstop Freddy Galvis.
The Reds (9-11) picked up their first run of the inning on a ground out from catcher Tucker Barnhart before right fielder Nicholas Castellanos broke things open with a three-run homer off Stratton.
The play of the inning — and probably the game — occurred when Galvis smartly backtracked on Barnhart’s hot shot to Adam Frazier. Galvis delayed just enough to prevent the double play, which saved an out.
Had he not been thinking and kept running toward Frazier, third baseman Kyle Farmer’s fly ball to center would’ve been the third out of the inning. Instead, Galvis extended the inning long enough for Castellanos to blow open the game.
“Once ‘Fraz’ leaves his feet, we don’t have a play at the plate,” Shelton said. “The ball was hit hard. You can look back and armchair quarterback and say that he could have run the guy back. But that happens instantaneously.”
The Pirates offense was limited to Bryan Reynolds’ first home run (and RBI) of the season and a double from Erik Gonzalez. Aside from that, it was a quiet night with 13 strikeouts. Gray got 10 of those and now has an MLB-best and Reds-record 45 through five starts.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati outfielder Jesse Winker stayed scorching hot. Winker came into the game hitting .577 (15 for 26) over his previous nine games, with 3 doubles, 3 home runs and 4 RBIs. The Pirates did little to cool him down.
In his first at-bat, Winker took a well-located Kuhl sinker and hit it over the leftfield fence. It was only 362 feet, a Great American Small Park special, but it still gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead.
After Reynolds went deep, Winker found a hanging curveball and smashed it 400 feet into the right-field concourse.
“It’s just one of those things where he’s the hottest guy in their lineup right now,” Kuhl said. “He’s seeing it well and any ball really into that zone where he’s hitting the ball well, he’s not missing. You’ve just got to tip your cap to him. ”
Reynolds’ homer could be one positive to pluck from this one.
Although Reynolds has been getting on base — he has a team-high 10 walks — the power has lacked, the outfielder slugging just .268 before Friday. More production out of him — especially now that Reynolds is hitting fifth — is obviously key to the offense improving.
Shelton thought a Reynolds foul ball in his first at-bat “got his contact point in the right spot.” Reynolds had a 96.9 mph lineout to short in the ninth, although he did strike out two more times.
“I was very encouraged by his swings [Friday],” Shelton said.
Gray relied on a terrific four-pitch mix where he commanded his curveball and used his harder stuff to put away Pirates hitters. Friday represented the MLB-record 38th consecutive start for Gray that he allowed six hits or fewer.
Kuhl went five innings and allowed both Winker homers. He countered with six strikeouts, five coming on either his slider or curveball, as Kuhl showed he’s a different pitcher in 2020 — one who still can throw hard but also a guy who has elevated the use of his secondary pitches.
“It felt good,” Kuhl said. “And even that first at-bat to Winker, it was 1-2. Just a mistake pitch there. For the most part, I felt like everything was working pretty well. Slider especially. One bad curveball. I felt like everything was pretty good.”