CINCINNATI — Josh VanMeter probably doesn’t want to return to Great American Ball Park any time soon. Pirates fans, meanwhile, likely aren’t clamoring for VanMeter to return at all, especially with Kevin Newman and Jake Marisnick seemingly at the tail end of their rehab assignments with Class AAA Indianapolis.
Although he wasn’t behind the plate this time, something that happened when Roberto Perez was hurt here on May 7, VanMeter was again at the center of where the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader turned — and eventually veered off a cliff, resulting in a 5-1 Reds victory.
Skip ahead to the seventh inning. The story at that point had very much been Bryse Wilson, who bottomed out June 14 in St. Louis, looked surprisingly good this past Saturday against the Brewers (6 innings, 2 runs) and was even better for much of his start as the 27th man against Cincinnati.
