It is tempting and not incorrect to say that not all baseball teams can win all games and that even teams like the Pirates lose to teams like the Reds from time to time. That doesn’t make this loss any less frustrating. The Reds had to scratch Raisel Iglesias on Saturday and give a start to [hold on I have to look this guy’s name up again] Tim Adelman, who shut them down over six innings in the way that most starters don’t. That alone isn’t bad; sometimes it’s hard to face a guy without much notice.
The problem is that whenever the Pirates tried to back into this game with their bats, their gloves handed runs right back to the Reds. Gregory Polanco started the scoring with a solo homer in the fifth, and then the Reds got three off of Jeff Locke in the sixth. Locke held the fort down for the seventh, though, and the Pirates tied the game up in the bottom of the inning. That was when the real comedy of errors started. The eighth inning started with Polanco badly misplaying Zack Cozart line drive and pinch-runner Tyler Holt scoring when Chris Stewart dropped a perfect thrown from Jordy Mercer on an attempted double steal. The Pirates tied the game up in the bottom of the eighth on a Matt Joyce single. In the ninth, the Reds rallied and scored when Starling Marte missed a cutoff game. The Pirates tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the inning on a John Jaso homer. In the eleventh, the Reds scored when Starling Marte misplayed a Eugenio Suarez hit into a triple and he scored on another misjudged ball by Polanco, which became a Scott Schebler double. The Pirates were finally out of answers.
The Pirates will not win every day and that’s fine, but I’d much rather they not play like this very often. The Cubs are coming to town this week; there is no time to dwell on this game.
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