Bucs Start Out Hot, Hold On To Broom Reds 9-8

Not a very good start for Dario Agrazal. A couple of walks, a bopped batter, a couple of singles, a couple of stolen bases, and hey – it was 3-0 from Jump Street. K-Man doubled to open against Trevor Bauer. A B-Rey rap plated him, and a misthrow got him to third, where he tallied on J-Bell’s sac fly to cut the gap to one. The Reds got a leadoff single in the second, then were quiet. Joey O walked, Eli singled and they were bunted up with an out. K-Man was plunked on a 3-2 pitch but ran off the ache when he was part of the trio scoring on B-Rey’s two-out three-bagger that was a tick away from a granny over the Clemente Wall. A hit batter and bunt single put Dario in hot water again in the third, but a pair of fan jobs held Cincy at bay. Redbeard doubled with an out and Joey O followed with another to make it 6-3. Fraze walked and an infield single by Eli jammed the sacks. Dario hit a liner to right; it ended up a force at second (well-hit to a shallow OF’er) but it sent Joey O home and allowed K-Man to drop a RBI single into left to keep it going at 8-3.

Agrazal kept up his bad habit of letting the leadoff runner reach, this one on a single, in the fourth, but he worked around it again. RJ Alaniz took over from the pen and retired the Pirates in order. A one-out single off J-Bell’s mitt was followed by a double in the fifth; a grounder brought home a run. Pittsburgh made no noise. Michael Feliz worked the sixth and gave up a homer to Kyle Farmer, then put down the next three Redlegs. Robert Stephenson gave up a rap to K-Man and walked B-Rey, but escaped when he knocked down J-Bell’s liner to end the inning. Keone Kela punched out a pair in the seventh. Fraze got a fat 3-2 heater from Michael Lorenzen and slugged a two-out three-bagger, but Eli couldn’t cash him in. Kyle Crick was the eighth inning man and was banged for a leadoff double. With two outs, Josh VanMeter went long on a first pitch fastball, and it’s an 8-7 game with time on the clock, with Felipe Vazquez coming in to get the final out. Amir Garrett gave up a single to K-Man, who stole second and scored on Starling’s two-out, safety-net double. The Nightmare needed it in the ninth as Eugenio Suarez knocked an 0-2 curve into seats, then didn’t allow another ball out of the infield. Raise the Roger.

A sweep. Who’d thunk it? Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Notes:

• Kevin Newman went 4-for-4 with a couple steals and three runs scored. B-Rey had two hits and three RBI, and Eli added a pair of raps.
• This is the first Bucco brooming since beating SD June 21-23rd. The Pirates also have a 10-game winning streak against the Reds at PNC Park.
• There were 22,249 announced at the park today.
• On his radio show, Neal danced around the catcher question for next year, saying it could be Jake, could be Eli, or could be someone else. TBH, at this point of the season, that’s the only thing to say. November is a different story, but the FO does have a good eye for the backstop market, picking up Russ and Cervy. Not surprisingly, Neal also seemed high on Archie in 2020. He’s going to miss two or three starts at best and may be done for the year with his shoulder woes, so we may not see him tossing again until camp.