Photo: Doug Gray

Eugenio Suárez provides the Good Vibes in a Reds win

Doug Gray 09/05/2020 34

Cincinnati Reds (18-22) third baseman Eugenio Suárez homered three times on Saturday night in a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates (12-26). He drove in five of the team’s six runs on the night as the bullpen came through after a solid, but shaky start by Anthony DeSclafani who had to consistently work out of jams.

Final	R	H	E
Cincinnati Reds (18-22)	6	6	2
Pittsburgh Pirates (12-26)	2	7	1
W: Garrett (1-0) L: Williams (1-6)
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The Offense

Cincinnati’s offense was rather quiet in the 1st inning, going 1-2-3. In the 2nd inning the Reds threatened after Brian Goodwin reached on an error and Shogo Akiyama walked, but Jose Garcia struck out to end the inning.

Tucker Barnhart got the Reds on the board in the 3rd with a leadoff homer to center field, giving them a 1-0 lead. Joey Votto followed up with a double to try and keep the pressure on Trevor Williams and the Pirates. Nick Castellanos grounded out, but Votto moved up to third base and Jesse Winker followed with a walk to put runners on the corners for Eugenio Suárez and he took care of the rest, with a 400-foot homer that was 109.2 MPH off of the bat. The 3-run homer extended the Cincinnati lead to 4-0.

After the Pirates got on the board, making it a 4-2 game, Eugenio Suárez extended the Reds lead with his second homer of the game – this one an opposite field shot down the right field line for a solo shot to make it 5-2 in the top of the 6th. He wasn’t done yet. In the top of the 8th it was another home run for Cincinnati’s third baseman, his 12th of the season, that made is 6-2.

The Pitching

Anthony DeSclafani worked around a leadoff double in the 1st inning to escape an early jam on Saturday evening. The next inning was another one where DeSclafani had to work around trouble. He recorded the first two outs of the inning quickly, but then a single and a walk put two runners on. The Reds righty got Jacob Stallings to ground out to strand the runners.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning it was more of the same – DeSclafani found himself needing to try and work out of jam after back-to-back singles led off the inning, with the second single getting Adam Frazier to second base on the throw to third. Bryan Reynolds grounded out without producing a run for the first out of the inning. Colin Moran followed with a walk to load the bases, bringing Gregory Polanco to the plate. He got the job done, lacing a line drive into the right-center gap – but Brian Goodwin ran it down making the grab on the run with a fully extended glove. It went down as a sacrifice fly to cut into the Reds lead, making it a 4-1 game.

It took a bit of luck to get out of the inning without any more damage as Mike Moustakas got a glove on the next ball but couldn’t come up with it, but the ball deflected toward Eugenio Suárez who picked it up and fired to Joey Votto at first to barely beat the runner to the bag. The 4th inning saw the Pirates go quickly for the first and second outs, but Jacob Stallings homered to keep Anthony DeSclafani from having his first clean inning of the day and drawing Pittsburgh closer by making it 4-2. Erik Gonzalez followed with an infield single, making him 3-3 on the day and getting the Reds bullpen moving. A ground out to Votto ended the inning, but the pitch count continued to rise for the Reds starter, who was at 75 pitches through 4.0 innings.

The 5th inning began with a walk for Anthony DeSclafani and that was the last hitter that he faced before David Bell went to Michael Lorenzen out of the bullpen. Lorenzen made quick and easy work, inducing a ground ball double play and ending the inning with a strikeout to keep the Reds up 4-2. He came back for the 6th inning and walked Josh Bell to lead off the inning, then gave up a 1-out single to put two men on. Jacob Stallings flew out lazily to right field for the second out of the inning. After another walk, one that loaded the bases, manager David Bell brought in Amir Garrett to face left Adam Frazier. The move paid off as Garrett struck out Frazier to strand the bases loaded.

Garrett returned for the 7th inning and made quick work of the Pirates, striking out the final two batters of the inning after getting Bryan Reynolds to ground out to Mike Moustakas to start the inning. Lucas Sims took the mound for the 8th and worked around a leadoff walk to keep the score 6-2 and send the game to the 9th.

New reliever Archie Bradley came out for the 9th inning. It took six pitches to get Erik Gonzalez out to lead off the inning, but he was the only Reds pitcher to do so on the night. Things started going south rather quickly after that. Adam Frazier reached on a throwing error by Kyle Farmer at second base. Bryan Reynolds then reached on a throwing error by Jose Garcia. But Colin Moran grounded into a double play to end the game.