CINCINNATI — As Pirates players walked back and forth with plates of breakfast and others prepared for batting practice Wednesday morning, Oneil Cruz and Rodolfo Castro chatted quietly in one corner of the visiting clubhouse at Great American Ball Park. Wearing a set of gray headphones as he listened to music and focused ahead of his start, Roansy Contreras couldn’t help but walk over and check on his friends.
Whether it’s been on the field or off of it, these three have been together and a lot of fun to watch lately, with Cruz, Castro and Contreras front and center as Pittsburgh earned a 10-4 victory over the Reds, the Pirates’ first four-game series sweep in Cincinnati since 1991.
Contreras started and delivered four innings of one-run ball before he was removed due to pitch-count limitations. Castro smacked a three-run homer in the third inning — the seventh of the series for the Pirates — to put them ahead for good.
