CINCINNATI — The Pirates on Saturday added injury to insult.
The result was a crazy, calamitous scenario that had Josh VanMeter, who had not donned catcher's gear since he was 14, squatting behind home plate in the eighth inning of a tie game against the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
The outcome was predictable, a 9-2 Pirates loss, but how Pittsburgh arrived at this particular conclusion was ... well, pretty darn fascinating, a combination of events where the only thing missing was some spicy pork and broccoli.
It started in the sixth inning, when backup catcher Andrew Knapp was ejected for arguing a check swing from Colin Moran. It continued when Roberto Perez singled in the eighth, went down in a heap while rounding second and incurred some sort of injury to his left leg.
That led to the emergency catcher, VanMeter, catching Wil Crowe in the eighth.
It did not go well.
After a hit batter and two walks to start, Cincinnati catcher Tyler Stephenson doubled into the right-field corner, past a diving Ben Gamel, to score a pair of runs and open the floodgates.
A sacrifice fly stretched the Reds’ lead to 5-2. Then right fielder Tyler Naquin cleared the bases with a three-run double. Second baseman Brandon Drury scored another with a double for good measure. Things got ugly.
The bigger question is what happens now?
Of great concern will be the big picture with Perez, who lost his balance about a step before second base, and his left leg extended in an awkward way, causing the catcher to crumple to the dirt.
Umpires immediately called for help. Multiple members of the training staff, plus manager Derek Shelton, jogged out from the dugout. Perez was ultimately helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his left leg.
Perez, signed this offseason for $5 million, has been a valuable addition for the pitching staff and also a workhorse behind the plate. Among National League catchers, only five had caught more than Perez's 152 innings coming into Saturday's doubleheader.
The Pirates announced in the ninth inning that it's a left hamstring issue with Perez, who hit his second home run as a Pirate on Wednesday and had gone 5 for his past 14.
Also painful for the Pirates in this one was what transpired immediately after Perez left the game. The Pirates loaded the bases with nobody out and failed to score a run, as Ke’Bryan Hayes, Daniel Vogelbach and Michael Chavis all struck out.
The victory was just the fourth for Cincinnati this season in 26 tries.
It’s a shame it came down to the catching situation and a freak amalgamation of events because the game began with a terrific start from JT Brubaker, who went five innings and matched his career high with nine strikeouts.
An important sequence came in the fifth inning, with two on and one out, a mess Brubaker created for himself with a pair of walks. He got out of it by striking Drury and designated hitter Tommy Pham looking, both on sinkers.
Trailing 2-0 after the first , the Pirates tied the score with single runs in the third and sixth. The first of those RBIs belonged to Gamel, who enjoyed a breakout day during Wednesday’s doubleheader in Detroit, going 5 for 8 with a double, triple and three RBIs to raise his batting average from .230 to .275 entering Saturday.
Gamel, who had three hits Saturday, connected on a down-and-in fastball and drove a double down the right-field line to score Perez from first.
In the sixth, Gamel led off with a single, advanced to second on Bryan Reynolds’ groundout and scored when Hayes lined a fastball to center field.
With early runs a problem for Pirates pitchers much of this season, Brubaker nearly got out of the first inning unscathed on Saturday, reaching an 0-2 count on first baseman Mike Moustakas before hitting him to extend the frame.
Stephenson made Brubaker pay with a soft double that gave the Reds a 2-0 lead. The first of those runners, Drury, picked up an extra base on Hayes’ fourth error of the season.
The Pirates third baseman tried to make a barehanded play, and Chavis couldn’t keep the ball in front of him. In what is now 24 games, Hayes has matched his error total from 119 games in the previous two years combined.
