CINCINNATI — The first win of the season for a Pirates starting pitcher will have to wait. So will any good vibes emanating from the banks of the Ohio River, which vanished along with a couple baseballs off the bat of old friend Colin Moran, who smacked two home runs and collected six RBIs against his former team.
Pittsburgh’s 7-3 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park included a couple different storylines, none of them good. The first, obviously, was Moran’s monster day. Much like another ex-Pirate, Andrew McCutchen, who had three hits, a homer and three RBIs during a 3-2 Brewers victory on April 28 at PNC Park, Moran let his old club have it.
With the Reds trailing by one in the sixth, Moran belted a Heath Hembree fastball into the right-center field stands for a go-ahead grand slam that changed the entire complexion of the game. He gave Cincinnati some insurance in the eight by taking Chase De Jong deep to center, connecting on another heater that was poorly placed.
The loss meant the Pirates (11-16) have still not won consecutive games here since early in the 2019 season. Overall, they’ve lost 16 of their past 18 at Great American.
It’s also sure to ignite a debate over the Pirates’ new pitching philosophy. Zach Thompson was cruising through five innings when manager Derek Shelton took him out in favor of Dillon Peters.
In Shelton’s defense, Peters has been arguably the best reliever in baseball over the first month. But Thompson was also cruising and at just 79 pitches when he was lifted. Predictably, Peters struggled, and Hembree coughed up the grand slam to Moran.
It’s also fair to point out that the Pirates, in two of their three games here against an historically bad Reds team, totaled just five runs. Aside from the outburst in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, they’ve been unable to get much going.
The breakdown began to occur when Peters, who came into the game with a scoreless streak of 16 2/3 innings — the longest for a Pirates pitcher since Richard Rodriguez went 19 1/3 without allowing a run in 2019 — struggled to find the strike zone.
Third baseman Brandon Drury led off with a walk before Peters walked the bases loaded. His four-pitch walk to Tommy Pham brought in the Reds’ first run, and Shelton brought in Hembree.
It looked for a second like Hembree might be able to escape, as he struck out shortstop Kyle Farmer on a terrific slider to set up a potential inning-ending double play. However, Moran made Hembree pay when he hammered a 2-1 pitch — a mistake fastball that was middle-middle — into the left-field seats.
The grand slam was the fifth of Moran’s career. It was also his first this season, as looks to establish himself as a key contributor on the corners for Cincinnati.
For Hembree, it was an all-too-familiar sight here. Pitching last season for the Reds and Mets, Hembree was 2-7 with a 5.59 ERA, allowing 12 home runs in 58 innings. Ten of those 12 came with Cincinnati. In 13 appearances now with the Pirates, Hembree has a 6.30 ERA — his worst in a full season — and has given up three home runs in 10 innings.
Sunday had easily been Thompson’s best outing of the season after he essentially ditched his four-seamer and leaned heavily on his cutter and slider. The big right-hander worked five innings, allowed two hits, walked none and struck out a season-high six.
Thompson also benefitted from a couple terrific defensive plays from Michael Chavis at third base. Chavis dove to his right to rob third baseman Brandon Drury in the first, then laid out the other way to catch a liner from second baseman Matt Reynolds in the third.
The Pirates’ early offense was supplied from an unlikely source, as Michael Perez, called up Saturday due to Roberto Perez going down with a hamstring injury, cracked a two-run homer in his first MLB at-bat of the 2022 regular season.
Facing Reds starter Tyler Mahle in the second inning, Perez won a nine-pitch battle by connecting on a full-count fastball that was middle-low, homering to right-center field for an early 2-0 Pirates lead.
Bryan Reynolds homered in the eighth, his second long ball in as many days, as he clobbered an elevated sinker into the seats in right.
