The Pittsburgh Pirates don’t win many games, but they’ve really enjoyed playing the Cincinnati Reds of late.
Tuesday evening they took their sixth straight victory against the Reds. If only they could play them every day.
Mitch Keller started and didn’t have his best stuff, but still battled through five innings. With two outs and runners on second and third in the first inning, Keller unleashed a wild pitch (I’m not even sure should have been a wild pitch) that allowed the games first run to score. He battled through five innings, throwing 97 pitches with 57 of them going for strikes. The run in the first inning was the only blemish against Keller, who finished with five hits, two hit by pitches, three walks, and five strikeouts to go with the one earned run in five innings. He induced six groundouts to two flyouts with an average exit velocity of 80.1 MPH.
In the third inning the Pirates pushed across an unearned run to tie the game. Ji-Hwan Bae lead off the inning from a hit by pitch before moving to third on a fielding error that put Oneil Cruz on first. Bryan Reynolds then hit into a double play to score Bae.
After a handful of zeros the Pirates got on the board again in the seventh. Bases loaded and one out brought new acquisition Miguel Andujar to the plate. He lifted a 105.2 MPH double to the left center wall — which he appeared to think was gone — and emptied the bases for a 4-1 lead.
That would be all the offense the Pirates needed on this night as the bullpen combined for four shutout innings to finalize the 4-1 victory.
Wil Crowe was able to get through two innings allowing only a hit to go with two strike outs. Duane Underwood Jr. pitched a hitless eighth with a strike out.
David Bednar finally made a ninth inning appearance for a save opportunity since returning and had a 1-2-3 inning with two strike outs. It was his 18th save of the season.
Reds @ Pirates
Time: 12:35 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Bryse Wilson (3-9, 5.95)
Reds Starter: Luis Cessa (4-4, 4.78)
Wilson Notes: This will be Bryse Wilson’s 20th start of the season which can probably be best described as the 2022 version of 2021 Wil Crowe. Crowe made 25 starts in 2021 with a 5.48 ERA covering 116.2 IP. Wilson has also managed to cover innings while not necessarily being very effective. In his previous start he went five innings against the Chicago Cubs allowing only two earned runs.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Series finale.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/bdawpvOEj6
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 28, 2022
Reds
1. TJ Friedl (L) LF
2. Spencer Steer (R) 3B
3. Kyle Farmer (R) DH
4. Jake Fraley (L) RF
5. Stuart Fairchild (R) CF
6. Alejo Lopez (S) 2B
7. Matt Reynolds (R) 1B
8. Jose Barrero (R) SS
9. Chuckie Robinson (R) C
