| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Pirates (27-27) | 7 | 15 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (26-30) |
2 | 7 | 0 |
| W: Brault (2-1) L: DeSclafani (2-3) |
|||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Pirates continue to be cowards who act like children and throw baseballs at people. But they also won the baseball game on Wednesday afternoon to split the series with the Reds.
The Offense
There wasn’t a lot going well for the Reds offense on the day. They threatened in the bottom of the 6th inning, but came up empty. They would get a run in the 8th inning on a Derek Dietrich RBI single. In the 9th inning they would get a home run off of the bat of Nick Senzel, his 4th of the season, to make it 7-2. But that’s all they would get. Dietrich went 2-4. Senzel went 2-5. Yasiel Puig drew two walks while going 0-2.
The Pitching
Things were going well for Anthony DeSclafani through 5 innings. The Pirates hadn’t scored, and hadn’t done too much threatening, either. The 6th inning wasn’t quite as easy. Bryan Reynolds led off the inning with a single, and an out later Josh Bell singled to put runners on the corners. Melky Cabrera flew out to shallow center field. But after falling behind Colin Moran 1-0, an 89 MPH change up was hit 356 feet and just cleared the left-field wall to put the Pirates up 3-0 and end the day for the Reds right-handed pitcher.
Michael Lorenzen came on to record the final out of the 6th inning and keep it a 3-0 game. He didn’t keep it a 3-0 game in the 7th. Lorenzen allowed 4 runs, including a 3-run homer that made it a 7-0 game. Matt Bowman and Raisel Iglesias both struck out 2 batters in a shutout inning of work over the final 2 frames.
Postgame interview with David Bell
Notes Worth Noting
Eugenio Suarez was hit in the hand by a pitch by the Pirates. He left the game after going to the mound to say something to the pitcher, then walking to first base. Raise your hand if you are shocked that Pittsburgh threw a baseball at someone. *looks around* I notice that no hands are raised. Update: Suarez had X-rays and they were negative on his hand. He’s expected to be fine.
David Bell came out to talk with the umpires after Suarez was hit by a pitch. After about 5 minutes things began to get heated and he was eventually ejected from the game. This was the 4th time he was ejected from a game.
Anthony DeSclafani has now allowed 38 home runs in 169.1 innings pitched dating back to the start of the 2018 season. The home run ball has just absolutely killed him.
The game was delayed 2 hours and 13 minutes – starting at 2:48pm.
Nick Senzel’s 4th homer of the year went 422 feet. It pushed his line on the year to .271/.345/.458.
Nick Senzel went 2-for-5 with a solo homer today to extend his on-base streak to an NL-best 18 games.#BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/4eM91Bh1os
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 29, 2019
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Washington Nationals at Cincinnati Reds
Friday May 31st, 7:10pm
TBA vs Tyler Mahle (1-5, 4.15 ERA)
Typical Clint Hurdle. Nothing more cowardly than throwing a baseball at someone. If MLB wanted this to stop they would suspend Hurdle for 20 games, but they won’t. Gutless or ignorant umpires don’t have the fortitude to toss anyone. It’s a joke
The Reds have hit more Pirates since 2012 — 79 vs. 67. Facts are facts. Quit whining.
Hurdle is a bit of a dork but not a dummy. He waited for the multi-run lead then had his guy drill someone.
Hopefully they can get rolling soon. Treading water gets old and eventually you sink.
The beamings should not be tolerated in this day and age, the athletes make too much injury to risk losing them to injury. If this was intentional, then it was designed to hurt Saurez our best hitter on the season, not send a message because Suarez has done nothing wrong other than play good baseball, what could the message sent be other than stay out of our way next time. I just don’t get it. Retalliation isn’t the answer but what is? At least in hockey you have designated goons that square off to settle things. If Suarez has to miss another month because of a fractured hand like last year it is a real shame. What was the conversation like when he went to the mound, was it a heated exchange, did the pitcher apologize and say it was an accident or what? Bell obviously thought it was intentional if he got thrown out arguing about it with the umpires.
Yea just saw that. He said the players have the right to protect themselves “whatever it takes” and he will back them up. If the league doesn’t step in it sounds like a beam war is on. I also watched the exchange with Suarez and Holmes and Holmes pretty much stared him down daring him to brawl. I compare that with when our guy beamed Bellinger in LA, Castillo was very apologetic and made sure they knew it was an accident. These guys don’t even pretend, they just glare at you like you have it coming. We are literally a last place team and they won’t allow us to win a single game or show off for the fans when you get a great home run. How is this acceptable? The Pirates under Hurdle are hands-down the dirtiest team in the league, this guy Holmes with his glare, man if he ever comes up to bat he would be a juicy target lol. Not condoning it, but it looks like Bell just told his boys the gloves are off… Of course that just increases the risk of injury because you know they will retaliate the retalliations, there is just no reasonable way to deal with them, its frustrating as a fan when your best guy misses a month of the season and no one ourside of our town cares at all. Do the Pirates pull these stunts with the major market teams or just us so they keep us below them in the standings… I can’t see how this would play out in Chicago.
The players could have brawled. You can’t expect a manager to call for a bean ball that is crazy. If Hurdle does that than he is nuts… more likely he just let’s his players do whatever they want so they organize it themselves… the catcher is probably the one calling for high and in and the pitcher just let’s it fly with a 7-0 lead. Anyhow he sent the message now, do what you gotta do. You can’t look to your manager for orders like that, it’s just a crazy concept I really don’t think Hurdle calls those pitches he just doesn’t care and encourages it. This is the old Don Drysdale chin music stuff they did this back when, but with a 7-0 lead vs a guy whose hand you already broke once before? There has to be a reckoning. The Reds GM must contact MLB and ask them to investigate. If they get crickets the players will do what they gotta do. I’d start with that Holmes character, but again I think it is the catcher.
Iglesias should have drilled Reynolds with the first pitch. Throwing at guys for celebrating is BS; when they hit your guy on a purposefully high and inside pitch, then you fight fire with fire as soon as you can.
Fewer guys will be hurt over the course of the season, if they handle it this way. Rolling over and taking it would just encourages other teams to pound the Reds inside, knowing that the Reds will turn the other cheek. And lose.
The Reds still owe the Nationals for Madson’s hitting Votto last year.
It really feels like the pitching, especially the bullpen, is starting to regress. Hopefully that’s not the case.
Pitching can’t stay perfect all year. Hitting needs to pickup the slack. Does Disco throw this fourth best pitch for a 3-run HR if he has the lead? No, he would be pitching to contact.
There is one solution to dealing will bullies – sock them in the nose. That’s all they respond to.
No discussion of Senzel bunting with runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs and the game still within reach?
Very strange with a good hitter like Senzel at bat with runners in scoring position and two outs.
I agree that the decision to bunt was a boner. If Billy Hamilton was the runner, then maybe it was a good decision, but not with Curt (NonUsain) Casali on third.
Senzel needed a 2-run single, not an iffy bunt single. I will chalk it up to youthful exuberance, and I doubt he ever bunts again in any similar situation.
That’s the shame in all this, we obviously will retaliate now and if they charge the mound on us our guys will be the ones getting the heaviest suspensions. But it needs to be done in my eyes. Throw at Bell every time one of ours gets hit and I would hope Hurdle would knock his nonsense off.
I was disappointed when Iglesias came in they weren’t going to have him get suspended. I understand he needed some work. On the same note bring in another more dispensable guys and then bring in Rasiel when he gets tossed for hitting bell.
If the next Reds batter that gets HBP turns around and goes lights-out on the catcher instead of charging the mound, they might start thinking twice about it.
Was hitting Suarez intentional?
Yes:
-The Pirates were mad about Dietrich’s dominance in general, and slow HR trot during Game 2 Monday 5/27 in particular.
-Archer threw behind Dietrich to retaliate earlier in the year.
-The Pirates waited until they were up 7-0 to retaliate with a first pitch fastball.
No:
-The Pirates hit Suarez, not Dietrich.
-The Pirates waited for a full inning after going up 7-0 to hit a batter.
-According to Suarez, Holmes and Diaz both claimed it was unintentional.
I can’t stand the Pirates, and would like to conclude that they were in the wrong here. But I’m struggling to conclude that the above is definitive. In light of this ambiguity, I wonder if Bell’s “protect yourself at all costs” comments postgame were an unnecessary escalation.
Yeah, sure, the Pirates’ denial that it was intentional should be the final word. Why doubt them?
The Pirates hit Suarez, not Dietrich.
Um, yeah…they also hit Suarez, not Peraza! Sorry, Jose, but your .197/.261/.322 doesn’t exactly make you what Clint Hurdle would call a “high-value target.” They went after Suarez and his .281/.358/.558 instead.
They did this on purpose, E.
That comes from playing in a tough division. Eventually the Reds have to beat the teams ahead of them in the division if they are going to compete. They are within striking distance including the WC. We saw this last year around this point of the season and we know the end result. If they can’t compete within the division then it will be another last place finish.
Concur WVRedlegs. As much as I love DD’s flare. Its time to reign him in…If you aren’t going to stoop to their level my throwing at them, use your head and not get thrown at. It starts with DD here…
Well…according to Suarez, he asked Holmes did he do it on purpose. Suarez said Holmes said No. Catcher Diaz tells him it wasn’t on purpose. OK, so who’s going to believe them right? Except everyone here is saying Holmes didn’t apologize or say anything…just glared. So, according to Suarez, that’s wrong. Second, Holmes says first pitch, and it got away. That’s totally plausible…Castillo has hit many a batter, unintentionally.
Now of course, there is bad blood with the Pirates (and because they hurt Suarez last year too), so that is coloring everyone’s opinion about intent. And, according to the Cowboy, you don’t throw at who you’re pissed at (Dietrich), you throw at a teammate, and why not the best. Throw at the Dietrich, and it just inspires him, cause collateral damage and Dietrich tones it down. So there is a plausible rationale for intent.
Calling DB a ‘wussy’ is absurd. To retaliate against Bell the next inning would have been way too obvious, and it would have been just the Reds to get in trouble. If you’re going to retaliate, you wait and pick your moment. It might make fans feel macho, but retaliation is a slippery slope, leading to serious injury and penalty. Boy it sure sounds like DB is calling for some kind of retaliation, though. And the league is going to keep a close eye on him.
Hopefully, Suarez is OK and continues undisturbed. The best thing the Reds can do is hit lots of HRs off the Pirates and stand there and watch admire them as the fly out and pass them in the standings.
Yes, winning is the best revenge.