Joey Votto goes deep twice as Reds hit 5 home runs, pound Pirates in final road game

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made no secret of their belief that the bandbox dimensions of Great American Ball Park benefit the power-hitting lineup of the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds reminded them anyway.

Joey Votto hit a pair of home runs – one in the front row in left, another to the last row in right – as the Reds took advantage of the Pirates’ depleted pitching staff by homering five times in pounding the Pirates, 13-1, on Monday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.

“I wouldn’t take anything away from Cincinnati because they swing the bats and they have good hitters,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I do think maybe it caught up with us a little bit. That’s no excuse. We didn’t execute pitches and they hit ‘em.”

Eugenio Suarez, Nick Castellanos and Jonathan India also homered for the Reds, who kept their postseason hopes alive. Cincinnati trails (82-75) the St. Louis Cardinals (87-69) by 5 ½ games for the second wild card berth in the National League with six games left.

The Reds hit 26 home runs and outscored the Pirates, 85-29, in winning nine of 10 meetings in Cincinnati this season. Castellanos finished with five RBIs, including a pair of sacrifice flies, while Votto drove in four runs and India scored four runs as the Reds put up double digits against the Pirates for the sixth time this season. The Reds finished with 17 hits, as India (4 for 5) and Suarez (3 for 5) led five players with multihit games.

The game, a makeup of last Wednesday’s rainout, completed the Pirates’ final road trip to finish with a 24-57 road record. The Pirates (58-98) end their season with a six-game homestand that starts Tuesday when the Chicago Cubs visit and ends with a three-game series against the Reds.

With their rotation decimated by injuries – four starters are on the injured list – the Pirates once again turned to their bullpen. The Pirates started Connor Overton on three days of rest, as he tossed 2 2/3 innings in a 12-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. The right-hander threw 27 of his 39 pitches for strikes in the first but left too many over the plate, and the Reds hit him hard while batting through the order.

“We’d seen the changeup better than it had been and today it was a little bit flat,” Shelton said. “Even though he didn’t miss in the middle, he missed up with it. Because of that, it didn’t make the fastball as effective.”

Overton (0-1) allowed four runs on six hits, as India hit a leadoff single and Max Schrock followed with a double to left-center to set up a sacrifice fly by Castellanos for a 1-0 lead. Votto drove a 3-1 fastball 366 feet to left-center for a two-run homer – his 34th of the season – and a 3-0 lead. The Reds tacked on another run on Tucker Barnhart’s single to right-center.

“I didn’t think that ball was gone at all,” Overton said of Votto’s homer. “Honestly, when he hit it, I turned back and I thought it was going to be 20 or 30 feet from the warning track, and it happened to make its way over. But you know, we knew coming in that this park plays short and balls in the air are dangerous here.”

The Reds continued to pound the Pirates. After Jonathan India doubled to left, Colin Moran’s fielding error at first base on a Max Schrock grounder proved costly. Instead of serving as the second out, it put runners on first and third for Cody Ponce.

Castellanos hit a sacrifice fly to center to score India for a 5-0 lead. Votto hit another two-run homer – this one a 466-foot shot to the top row in right – to give the Reds a 7-0 lead, and Suarez followed with a 409-foot drive to center for his 29th homer to make it 8-0.

The Pirates scored in the fifth, when Anthony Alford hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on Kevin Newman’s flyout to center and scored on Reiver Sanmartin’s wild pitch to cut it to 8-1.

With Wade Miley on the IL (neck strain), the Reds turned to Sanmartin. In his first major league start, the 25-year-old southpaw allowed one run on five hits and one walk while striking out five on 93 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.

Sanmartin (1-0) left to a warm ovation after loading the bases with two outs in the sixth on a nine-pitch walk to Moran after a Yoshi Tsutsugo single and a Bryan Reynolds double. The Reds replaced Sanmartin with Art Warren, who struck out Alford to escape the jam.

The Pirates placed Rule 5 right-hander Luis Oviedo (right shoulder strain) on the 10-day injured list and recalled righty Kyle Keller from Triple-A Indianapolis. Keller struck out the side in the fifth but served up a three-run homer to Castellanos in the sixth.

“That’s what happens when you face a hot ball club: You get unlucky,” Ponce said. “They make some great swings on great pitches. It’s the name of the game.”