Bryse Wilson hasn’t been dominant but he’s been effective.
One of Wilson’s bugaboo’s over his career has been a high walk rate. Over his last 49.2 IP including Friday night’s game he’s given up only six free passes. The issue is that he lives and dies by contact having also only struck out 28 batters in those same innings.
On this night Bryse Wilson completed seven innings for the first time in his career. With Wilson relying heavily on pitching to contact, he’s also dealt with handing out the longball often. The Cincinnati Reds scored all their runs on homeruns with Nick Senzel hitting a two-run homerun in the second inning and then TJ Friedl with a solo-shot in the fifth.
For majority of the game Reds’ starter Graham Ashcraft was finding very little pushback from the Pirates offense giving up only three singles through five innings. In the sixth inning the Pirates would find a way to breakthrough.
Kevin Newman who himself is on a bit of a hot stretch started the sixth inning off with a single. Ben Gamel singled with one out to put runners on first and third. Then with two outs and Rodolfo Castro up to bat, Ashcraft spiked a breaking ball that got away and allowed Newman to scamper home for the Pirates first run and cut the score to 3-1.
Bryse Wilson pitched a scoreless 7th to complete his evening before the Pirates offense went back to work in the bottom half. Greg Allen and Bligh Madris both singled to start off the bottom of the 7th to put runners on 1st and 3rd. With one out Kevin Newman lifted a deep flyball to center field that would score Allen. One batter later Bryan Reynolds would finish Ashcraft’s evening with a single and the Reds decided to bring in reliever Alexis Diaz to face Gamel. Gamel didn’t wait long hitting the first pitch he saw to right field scoring Madris and tying the game.
With the score tied three-all, Duane Underwood Jr. took over for the 8th. Derek Shelton pulled Underwood Jr. after the fourth hitter he faced singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs as the second batter of the inning had reached due to an Oneil Cruz throwing error. Wil Crowe replaced Underwood Jr. but the first hitter managed a RBI single before Crowe struck out the next batter to end the inning.
With the Reds taking a 4-3 lead, the Pirates offense couldn’t get anything going in the bottom of the 8th. Crowe came back out for the 9th inning and pitched a scoreless inning after working around a Rodolfo Castro error.
On this night though, the Pirates were ready for some Friday Night Fireworks in the bottom of the 9th.
Fresh off collecting his first hit since August 7th, Madris decided he’d like to have another and hit a leadoff single. Tucupita Marcano was brought in as a pinch-hitter for Jason Delay and moved Madris over to 2B on a sacrifice bunt. Newman wanted a little more than a single, so he hit a drive to left center that dropped in for a RBI double and tied the game at 4-4. Afraid of Reynolds’ hot week, Reds’ manager David Bell went to the bullpen to bring in LHP Ross Detwiler and intentionally walked Reynolds.
Gamel stepped to the plate for a lefty on lefty matchup that ended in a 3-2 hit-by-pitch and loaded the bases. Up came Michael Chavis — who is another player in a slump that could use a big hit — lining the second pitch he saw to left field and walking it off 5-4 for the Buccos.
This win moved the Pirates ahead of the Reds and into fourth place in the NL Central. We get to wake up and do it all over again.
Reds @ Pirates
Time: 7:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Tyler Beede (1-2, 3.72)
Reds Starter: Justin Dunn (0-1, 8.64)
Beede Notes: This will be Beede’s fourth start on the season for the Pirates. Beede has slowly built up his pitch count having thrown 74 pitches his last outing. Beede needs to show now that he can pitch deeper into games.
LINEUPS
Pirates
Our Saturday starters.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/9TBNBgRjpn
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 20, 2022
Reds
1. Jake Fraley (L) RF
2. Jonathan India (R) 2B
3. Kyle Farmer (R) 3B
4. Mike Moustakas (L) 1B
5. Donovan Solano (R) DH
6. Nick Senzel (R) CF
7. TJ Friedl (L) LF
8. Jose Barrero (R) SS
9. Austin Romine (R) C
