Pirates shut out Reds for the third time, 2-0

His fastball deserted him for a time. His teammates struggled to offer the run support every pitcher needs.

But Joe Musgrove had two good friends on his side: Catcher Francisco Cervelli and his slider. They were more than enough to help the Pittsburgh Pirates (3-3) defeat the Cincinnati Reds (1-6) on Friday night, 2-0, at PNC Park.

Musgrove took his turn among Pirates starters who have dominated almost every opponent through the first six games of the season. All three of the Pirates’ victories have been shutouts.

Musgrove said the strong bond forged among starters Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Chris Archer, Jordan Lyles and himself have a lot to do with their early-season success.

“We’re competing in a sense we want to go out and top each other’s outings,” Musgrove said. “Everybody is pulling for each other and this is what we expect from each other every fifth day.”

In his first start, Musgrove struck out eight Reds batters, allowed just three hits and one walk and worked efficiently through seven innings and 88 pitches (63 strikes). The Reds have been shut out by the Pirates three times in the past six days, and they have now gone 28 consecutive innings without a run. They haven’t scored since the eighth inning Tuesday in a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

“Cervi made it easy for me,” Musgrove said of his battery mate. “I didn’t have my greatest stuff. I know the results made it look a little bit different. Cervi is one of the best at finding a way to navigate you through the lineup.

“As the game went on, I started to find my fastball a little more. My sinker got a little better. The slider was my weapon of choice. It was really good, sharper than it’s been in a while.

“Part of that was because I didn’t have a great fastball so I was relying on the slider heavy, which is something I don’t really want to do, but when you’re out there competing you’ll do whatever you have to do to win.”

Musgrove faced 24 batters and threw a first-pitch strike to 20 of them, showing the Reds he was in command of the strike zone.

“You’ve heard it before – the best pitch in baseball is strike one,” manager Clint Hurdle saids. “For Joe to go out and get strike one and then the mix, the spin, whether it was the curveball, the slider, just showed his fastball throughout the night.

“Ahead, aggressive, hunting outs, hunting contact and then he gets eight punch outs on the other side of it because he’s making pitches that are looking like strikes out of the hand that are ending up in a really good spot.”

The other encouraging sign was the bullpen duo of Keone Kela and Felipe Vazquez pitching three-up, three-down eighth and ninth innings. Shortstop Erik Gonzalez helped Kela get the first out of the eighth, diving to his right and stretching his 6-foot-3 frame to its fullest to grab Tucker Barnhart’s groundball and throw him out.

“That’s as good a play as you’ll see a shortstop make,” Hurdle said.

Vazquez recorded the save, his second in two nights.

“We want to get him in some rhythm,” Hurdle said. “He said he was good to go. There are times you just trust guys.”

Overall, Gonzalez and third baseman Jung Ho Kang handled six of the final 12 outs.

Kang broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a double that scored Josh Bell from first base.

The biggest question of the night centered on whether or not Friday was Kang’s 32^nd birthday. Differences in the U.S. and Korean calendars actually give Kang two birthdays, interpreter Jeffrey Kim explained – April 5 in the U.S., May 9 in Korea.

“In Korea today is not my birthday,” Kang said through Kim. “But we’re in the United States. I’ll take today as my birthday.”

Told that every day is your birthday when you drive in the winning run, Kang said, “Yeah, sure.”

Said Hurdle: “If he’s going to hit game-winning RBIs on his birthday, we’ll give him 25 more of them throughout the season.”

In the eighth inning, the Pirates, who recorded only five hits, manufactured a run, utilizing bunts by JB Shuck and Gonzalez and a double – lefty on lefty — by Adam Frazier against former Pirates pitcher Zach Duke.

“We’ve said all along he’s been a guy who doesn’t give much against left-handed pitching,” Hurdle said. “The times you don’t hit, you have to find a way to scratch your way out. We were opportunistic late.”

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