Desclafani’s scoreless run ends quickly in defeat
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Anthony Desclafani had thrown up nothing but zeroes in his first two starts. That changed quickly Thursday night.
Adam Frazier hit the first of three homers off Desclafani, and the Pittsburgh Pirates returned from a threeday layoff with a flourish, beating the Reds 9-6 in Great American Ball Park.
Pittsburgh’s three-game series in St. Louis was called off because of the Cardinals’ COVID-19 outbreak. The Pirates showed no rust against a pitcher they’ve dominated.
Desclafani (1-1) didn’t allow a run in 11 innings entering this start, but Frazier connected on the right-hander’s second pitch, and the Pirates surged to a 9-0 lead after two innings.
“It seemed like they were on everything,” Reds manager David Bell said.
Desclafani hasn’t beaten the Pirates since June 17, 2018. Since then, he’s 0-5 in seven starts — all Pirates wins — giving up 29 runs in 32 1/3 innings.
Nick Senzel drove in four runs with a home run, double and single for Cincinnati, and Tucker Barnhart ended an 0-for-22 slump with a leadoff homer in the ninth.
Plesac says portrayal unwarranted
Cleveland Indians pitcher Zach Plesac feels he and teammate Mike Clevinger have been unfairly portrayed as “bad people” in the aftermath of the pitchers being quarantined by the team for violating COVID-19 protocols last weekend in Chicago.
The Indians placed the right-handers on the restricted list Tuesday, when fellow pitcher Adam Plutko said Plesac and Clevinger had “hurt us bad. They lied to us.”
Plesac said in a six-minute video on his Instagram page that his actions weren’t malicious and that he and Clevinger practiced social distancing when they were with a small group at dinner and then afterward.
He said reports about him and Clevinger have not been fair.
“The media is terrible, man,” Plesac said in the video. “They do some evil things to create stories and make things sound better and make things sound worse.”
Betts ties mark for 3-homer games
Mookie Betts hit three home runs Thursday night for the sixth time in his career, matching a major league record held by Sammy Sosa and Hall of Famer Johnny Mize.
With a chance to tie the big league mark of four home runs in one game, Betts reached on an infield single in the seventh inning.
Betts tied the mark shared by Sammy Sosa and Hall of Famer Johnny Mize. Betts accomplished the feat in 813 career games. Sosa needed 2,364 games, and Mize did it in 1,884.