After defensive lapses in 1st game, Pirates capitalize on Reds error to split doubleheader

The Pittsburgh Pirates had the oddity of a Friday doubleheader that involved a home game followed by a road game against the same opponent, both played in their own ballpark.

What they found is there’s no place home when you’re on the road.

After being done in by their own defensive miscues in a 4-2 loss to Cincinnati in the first game, the Pirates rallied after a Reds error to win the second 4-3 on Friday night at PNC Park.

The nightcap was a makeup of their Aug. 15 game, which was postponed when a Reds player tested positive for covid-19. The Pirates and Reds will make up the postponed Aug. 16 game Sept. 14 at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park.

The Pirates were trailing 2-0 after Eugenio Suarez hit a two-run homer in the first. That gave a cushion for Reds starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, who became flustered in the fourth when first baseman Joey Votto missed second baseman Mike Moustakas’ throw on Colin Moran’s grounder.

Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to put runners on first and third for Anthony Alford, who hit a two-run triple to tie it and scored the go-ahead run on Bauer’s wild pitch for a 3-2 lead.

The Reds tied it again on a solo home run by Mike Moustakas off Cody Ponce in the bottom of the fourth, but Kevin Newman scored the winning run from third when Bryan Reynolds grounded into a double play at second base.

The Pirates (12-25) were happy to settle for a split after their sloppy play in the opener, when they committed an error for the sixth consecutive game.

They dug a hole with two outs in the second when starter Steven Brault hit Aristides Aquino with a pitch. Curt Casili followed with a liner off Josh Bell’s glove, and the error allowed Aquino to move into scoring position. Jose Garcia’s RBI single to left scored Aquino for a 1-0 lead.

The Reds continued to take advantage of the Pirates’ defensive lapses. In the second, Votto led off with a single and reached second when Pirates shortstop Erik Gonzalez made a diving stop of a Nicholas Castellanos grounder but couldn’t flip it to Newman at second base in time. Gonzalez got up slowly, grabbing his left side and causing team trainers to check on him, but remained in the game.

In the third, the Reds made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly by Suarez to score Votto, then benefited from the confusion in shallow center when Jesse Winker’s pop fly dropped between incoming Cole Tucker and outgoing Gonzalez to score Castellanos for a 3-0 lead.

“If anyone should call it, it’s me. I just didn’t think I had a bead on it,” Tucker said. “But hindsight 20-20, knowing he got banged up the play before, I probably should’ve moved in a little bit, if anything. … Honestly, it’s perfect, you know, just a dunk in, dropped-in ball. It happens.”

Brault (0-2), who allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts, wasn’t as focused on the errors and fielding mishaps as his own mistakes.

“It’s not mistakes behind me that I care about,” Brault said. “If I ever stop walking people or throwing pitches down the middle every now and then, then I’ll say something. But mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. I don’t care about that. It’s frustrating to get the weak contact that just happens to go to the right spot over and over and over again. That’s more frustrating.”

The Pirates cut it to 3-2 in the bottom of the third when Moran drove in Gonzalez with a single, and Gregory Polanco followed with a double to score Reynolds. But Bell, who dropped to sixth in the order, struck out with runners on second and third.

Brault threw 96 pitches over 4²/₃ innings, calling it “death by a thousand cuts.” The killer pitch was his 1-1 slider that Castellanos sent 419 feet into the visiting bullpen, his 11th home run and one that garnered a 4-2 lead in the fifth.

“I just threw it right down the middle,” Brault said. “The idea was to get low and in, get a rollover ground ball. Kind of wrap around the ball sometimes. But he did a good job of staying behind it, and I put it over the middle and he hit it. It happens. It’s the big leagues. You make mistakes, sometimes people take advantage.”

Reds right-hander Luis Castillo (1-5) countered by giving up two runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out eight in six innings to earn the win. Raisel Iglesias pitched a scoreless seventh for the save.

The Pirates had little time to dwell on the loss, given they had another game to play.

“You’re shooting yourself in the foot but, I mean, it’s tough,” Tucker said. “You want to go out and play the cleanest game of baseball that you can personally and as a team, and the teams that do that really well win a lot more games. We haven’t been the best at that lately, but we are trying to improve and we are working our tails off to be the best defensive team that we can be. It just didn’t show up today.”