Roansy Contreras outdueled by Rich Hill in return as Pirates drop 6th straight

When Bryan Reynolds followed Kevin Newman’s leadoff single by hitting a towering, two-run home run in the first inning, the Pittsburgh Pirates looked like a team ready to snap its five-game losing streak.

It was but a tease.

Rich Hill was the model of efficiency thereafter. He allowed only one more hit, and the Boston Red Sox rolled to an 8-3 win Wednesday night before 15,231 at PNC Park. It marked the sixth consecutive loss for the Pirates, who are 6-18 since the All-Star break.

Pirates rookie right-hander Roansy Contreras returned from his buildup in Triple-A Indianapolis to throw six innings but was outdueled by Hill, a 42-year-old left-hander in his 18th major league season.

“Rich Hill did a good job,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Bryan got us on the board early, and then (Hill) just kept us off balance. He had us between a lot. The one thing that really stands out is the different arm angles, the ability to change his delivery and create weapons in other ways because of it.”

Hill is no stranger to PNC Park, where he tossed nine no-hit innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers before giving up a Josh Harrison walk-off home run in the 10th in a 1-0 loss on Aug. 23, 2017.

After Contreras retired the Red Sox on seven pitches in the first inning, Newman singled to left, and Reynolds sent a 2-0 fastball 416 feet into the home bullpen in left-center for his 18th home run and a 2-0 Pirates lead. It was Reynolds’ sixth homer in the first inning this season and his 11th homer to give the Pirates a lead.

It didn’t last long. The second inning wasn’t so smooth for Contreras, who battled control issues and tossed 30 pitches as the Red Sox batted around and scored three runs.

Christian Arroyo doubled past a diving Reynolds in center to score Alex Verdugo and J.D. Martinez and tie the score, and Kike Hernandez singled through the shift to score Arroyo to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.

Contreras struck out Tommy Pham, then intentionally walked one .303 hitter, Rafael Devers, to load the bases for another, Xander Bogaerts. Contreras escaped by getting Bogaerts to swing at an 83-mph slider for his second strikeout.

“I experienced an inning of straight-up battle,” Contreras said through translator Mike Gonzalez. “But I was competing. I was giving the best I had. That’s what I had. I just went out there with the best I had, trying to help the team win. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out in our way.”

The Red Sox stretched their lead to 4-2 in the fifth when Verdugo smacked a sharp double down the right-field line to score Bogaerts.

Hill, meantime, retired 12 consecutive Pirates before giving up a single to Rodolfo Castro in the fifth. Where Hill allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts on 57 pitches through five innings, Contreras gave up four runs on six hits and four walks while striking out three on 90 pitches in six innings.

Shelton was impressed with the way Contreras turned to his slider to get seven whiffs and 10 called strikes when he was having trouble with his fastball command and sporadic success with his curveball.

“I think it just shows the kid has really good stuff,” Shelton said, “because he was navigating through a challenging lineup that was right-left, right-left all the way through and was able to manipulate his slider enough to get through six innings.”

The Red Sox scored on a bases-loaded walk by pinch hitter Rob Refsnyder in the eighth for a 5-2 lead. Boston added to its lead against Yohan Ramirez in the ninth, as Arroyo singled to score Verdugo for a 6-2 lead, and Kevin Plawecki followed with a two-run bloop to right to make it 8-2.

Reynolds started a rally in the bottom of the ninth with a one-out single to left, advanced to third on a double by Michael Chavis and scored on Ben Gamel’s line drive to center to cut it to 8-3. The problem for the Pirates was how their bats went silent in the seven innings in between.

“It’s swinging at the right pitches,” Shelton said. “I think we kind of got out of our zone throughout the game, and we let the Boston pitchers dictate what we were going to swing at instead of staying in our hitting zones.”