Pittsburg, PA
Pirates Bullpen Squanders Lead in Loss to Padres
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ (22-38) blew an early lead as their bullpen faltered in a 6-4 loss against the San Diego Padres (33-24) on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.
The rubber match handed the Pirates a series loss against San Diego. Pittsburgh went 3-3 during this week’s West Coast road trip.
Going into the bottom of the seventh inning, it looked like the Pirates were going to finish out their West Coast travels with another series win. But the Pirates bullpen squandered a 4-1 lead, and the Buccos’ bats were quiet after the fourth inning. It was another close loss, but one that the Pirates would have liked to hold on to for a second consecutive series win.
Oneil Cruz got things going for Pittsburgh in the first inning with a leadoff walk. He then stole second base for his National League-leading 19th stolen base of the season. Bryan Reynolds, scorching hot coming into today’s game, then came to the plate with a runner in scoring position and only one out.
Reynolds would walk as well. Spencer Horwitz then flew out to left, while Ke’Bryan Hayes grounded out to third base to end the Pirates early threat.
The Padres did not take long to open up the scoring. With two outs, Manny Machado blasted a no-doubt shot to left field off a hanging curveball from Pirates starting pitcher Andrew Heaney to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. It was Machado’s third home run off Heaney in 23 career at-bats against the lefty.
Jackson Merrill followed the home run with a double in the left-center gap. In the next at-bat, Gavin Sheets hit a ball to almost the exact same spot. But it had a little more loft than Merrill’s line-drive, and Cruz was able to soar over to the ball for the third out.
In the third inning, Cruz walked again. He also stole second again. It was his 20th stolen base of the season.
Cruz did not need to use his legs to score a run. Instead, Andrew McCutchen hammered a home run to left field, giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
The home run was McCutchen’s 240th as a Pittsburgh Pirate, tying him with legend Roberto Clemente for the third most in franchise history.
McCutchen’s moment came only two days after he moved into ninth place all-time on the Pirates’ leaderboard for hits.
Pittsburgh’s offense did not stop there. Spencer Horwitz hit a ground-rule double to left-center field. Then, Hayes drove him in with a soft single to center field. Hayes would ultimately be caught in a pickle, but the Pirates still left the top half of the third inning with a 3-1 lead.
Adam Frazier kept the offensive momentum going with a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning. It was Frazier’s third home run of the season, and the first opposite field home run of his ten-year career. After singles from Tommy Pham and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Vasquez’s evening was over.
The right-hander pitched 3.1 innings, allowing six hits, four earned runs, while walking four and striking out three. It was Vasquez’s shortest start of the season.
Reliever Wandy Peralta came on and limited the damage. The Pirates now carried a 4-1 lead.
Heaney dominated the middle innings for the Pirates. He retired 13 Padres hitters in a row from the second to the sixth inning. Luis Arraez broke up the streak in the sixth with a one-out double down the left field line.
After giving up the Machado home run, Heaney was able to keep his breaking balls down and away from San Diego bats. His on-the-go adjustments made all the difference in another solid start for a Pirates starting pitcher.
The Padres scored their second run when Merrill notched his second double of the day, this one down the right-field line. The score now 4-2, Heaney was replaced by reliever Chase Shugart. He did not allow Merrill to score, his 12th stranded runner of the season. That’s the most of any reliever in MLB without allowing a stranded runner to score.
Heaney’s line for the day was 5.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earned runs, with no walks and three strikeouts. It was a nice rebound from Heaney’s previous start against Arizona, his worst outing of the season.
San Diego took advantage of Heaney’s removal. In the seventh inning, Pirates reliever Tanner Rainey walked two batters before an Elias Diaz single put the Padres within one run. Then, Rainey walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases with only one out. Rainey’s short, unsuccessful outing was done after this. He walked three and allowed one hit.
Left-hander Caleb Ferguson came on to replace Rainey in the tough spot. Arraez proceeded to loop a RBI single past Kiner-Falefa to tie the game at 4-4, with the bases still loaded.
Machado then drove a ball into the left-center field gap that looked like might go over the wall for a grand slam. But it died at the warning track, and Cruz was able to snag the ball for the second out. Still, a Padres runner came around to score on the sacrifice fly, giving the Padres a 5-4 lead.
Tyler Wade provided the Padres a 6-4 lead when he hit a comebacker ground ball that bounced off Ferguson’s glove and died behind the mound. Ferguson struck out Xander Bogaerts to stop the bleeding.
All four runs that were allowed in the inning were credited to Rainey. His ERA rose to 10.57 after today’s appearance. He also took the loss today.
The Pirates’ bats went down in order during the eighth inning. Closer Robert Suarez came on to pitch the ninth for San Diego. He had no issues retiring the Pirates in order again, notching his 19th save of the season. He lowered his ERA on the season to 2.13.
The Pirates will return home for a three-game series against the Houston Astros that starts on Tuesday. They are off for a travel day on Monday. Paul Skenes (4-5, 2.15 ERA, 77 K) will take the mound for the Pirates on Tuesday night, while Lance McCullers Jr. (0-1, 5.89 ERA, 26 K) gets the starting nod for Houston. First pitch is expected at 6:40 PM ET.
Make sure to visit Pirates OnSI for the latest news, updates, interviews and insight on the Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cincinnati Reds are in a rain delay for the second consecutive day. Saturday’s rain delay came before the game even started. Sunday’s rain delay occurred in the bottom of the 8th inning.
“The tarp is on the field, and we are in a delay here at PNC,” the Pirates official account posted on X. “We’ll update when we have info.”
Update: The grounds crew is taking the tarp off the field and the game is expected to resume around 5:20 ET.
The Pittsburgh Pirates lead the Reds 5-4 in the 8th.
Let’s take a look at how we got there.
Game Recap
In the second inning, Esmerlyn Valdez hit a ground-rule double off Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer that scored Nick Gonzalez, giving the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.
Later in the inning, former Red Tyler Callihan hit his third home run of the year, giving Pittsburgh a 4-0 lead.
However, in the fourth, the Reds would battle back. After Elly De La Cruz reached on an error and Sal Stewart singled, JJ Bleday added a single of his own that would score both, making it a 4-2 Pittsburgh advantage.
The Reds continued to rally in the fifth. After Noelvi Marte walked, Tyler Stephenson stayed hot with an RBI double to left field, getting the Reds back within a run.
Edwin Arroyo followed with an RBI single of his own that tied the game at 4.
The Pirates got a run back in the bottom half of the fifth when Ryan O’Hearn hit his 12th home run of the season. That would be it for Singer, who gave up five runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.
The Pirates had a big opportunity to break the game wide open in the seventh when Zach McCambley walked the bases loaded. Reds manager Terry Francona brought in Brock Burke, who was miraculously able to get out of the jam with a pop-up and an inning-ending double play.
The Reds had a big chance to tie the game in the 8th when they had runners on first and second with nobody out. However, Nathaniel Lowe popped out, Spencer Steer flew out, and Noelvi Marte grounded out to end the threat.
Pierce Johnson was set to come in the game for the Reds when the game entered a rain delay.
We will provide an update as we know more.
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Two people are dead after an early morning crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
According to state police, around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, they were called to a single-vehicle crash near Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County.
A vehicle with two people inside reportedly drove onto an embankment, where it lost control. After losing control, it then hit the overpass, causing it to flip, which trapped the two people inside.
State police said that once fire and rescue crews arrived on the scene, both of the occupants of the vehicle were dead, and the coroner was called to the scene.
The Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office identified the driver as Hunter Fronius of Connellsville and the passenger as Raymond Foster, also of Connellsville.
According to the coroner’s report, the cause of death for both of the deceased was blunt force injuries, and the manner of death was ruled to be accidental.
The coroner’s report also stated that neither of the men in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the crash.
You don’t need to have your eyes checked, you are seeing things right – the Cincinnati Reds have won a second straight game against a National League Central division opponent. The win in a back-and-forth game came down to the 9th inning and down to their last strike the Reds got a 3-run home run from Eugenio Suarez and they held on to beat the Pirates and pick up a series win in Pittsburgh with one game left on Sunday.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (39-42) | 9 | 10 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates (41-42) | 7 | 11 | 2 |
| W: Ferguson (1-0) L: Soto (4-2) SV: Petty (1) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
After a delayed start due to some rain, the game started about 40 minutes after the originally scheduled time. Cincinnati didn’t take much time to grab a lead. Sal Stewart took the 4th pitch of the game and went the other way for a solo home run. Chase Burns had to work around two singles in the bottom of the inning but he got out of the jam to keep the lead.
Two innings later the Reds offense got back to it when Jose Trevino led off with a ground-rule double and later came in to score on a 2-out hit by Stewart as he picked up his second run batted in on the day. The Pirates put together a rally of their own in the bottom of the frame. Back-to-back singles got things started and then Brandon Lowe came through for the home team with a 3-run home run to put Pittsburgh in the lead. In the 4th inning they would tack on another run on a single by Jared Triolo that made it 4-2.
Cincinnati got back in the game in the 5th with plenty of help from the Pirates. Dane Myers walked and then took second base thanks to a balk. A wild pitch moved him to third base and he would later score on a double by Edwin Arroyo. A second wild pitch in the inning moved him up to third and then he scored when Brandon Lowe failed to come up with a grounder cleanly at second base with two outs and that tied up the game.
The next inning the Reds would take the lead. They would load the bases with one out thanks to a walk and two singles. That set things up for Jose Trevino who came through with a 2-run single that made it 6-4.
At 90 pitches on the day, Chase Burns headed back to the mound for the 7th inning with a lead but he gave up a leadoff double that just missed being a home run off of the top of the wall in right field. That ended his day and manager Terry Francona called on Sam Moll from the bullpen. He would get a groundout, but it moved Jared Triolo up to third base and he then came in to score on a sacrifice fly that made it a 1-run game. Moll then walked Bryan Reynolds and Nick Gonzales, bringing up left-handed hitter Ryan O’Hearn and he came through with a game-tying single into right field. Tejay Antone then entered the game and struck out Marcell Ozuna to end the inning.
Pittsburgh would see a new reliever to start the 8th inning as Caleb Ferguson took over for Antone. He got a line out to begin the inning but then Esmerlyn Valdez took the first pitch he saw and hit it into the seats in right field for a go-ahead solo home run to give Pittsburgh the lead.
Cincinnati entered the top of the 9th down by a run but they got the tying run on base immediately as Edwin Arroyo lined a single into right field. Elly De La Cruz was called out on strikes, but he challenged the call and it was overturned and turned strike three into ball four and the Reds had two men on with no outs. After Sal Stewart grounded into a double play, moving Arroyo to third base, JJ Bleday worked a walk to put runners on the corners for Eugenio Suarez. He came through in the biggest way as he took a 2-2 97 MPH fastball and went the other way for a 3-run home run to put Cincinnati up 9-7.
Now holding a lead the Reds sent Chase Petty to the mound. The first pitch he threw turned into a groundout. It took four pitches to get Bryan Reynolds to pop up for the second out. Petty fell behind the next hitter and wound up walking Nick Gonzalez, bringing Ryan O’Hearn to the plate as the tying run. He pulled a line drive down the line but Spencer Steer was standing right there to catch it and end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Eugenio Suarez hitting a go-ahead 3-run home run in the top of the 9th inning.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati had just two wins against the NL Central when this series began. They’ve now doubled that and have a chance at a sweep on Sunday.
Sal Stewart, Jose Trevino, and Edwin Arroyo all had 2-hit days.
Eugenio Suarez had been in a big slump, going 1-22 from June 16-23rd. But since then he’s been heating up a bit, going 4-11 with two doubles, a home run, and two walks in the last three games.
Chase Petty picked up his first career save.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates
Sunday June 28th, 1:35pm ET
Brady Singer (3-6, 4.81 ERA) vs Mitch Keller (5-5, 4.89 ERA)
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