Reds boosted by three home runs, ugly sixth inning to sweep Pirates in doubleheader

Just when it looked like the Cincinnati Reds wouldn’t have scored a run in their doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates without hitting a home run, they found a way to make it even worse.

With the bases loaded, the Pirates gave up a walk, committed an error and threw a wild pitch.

A homer would have been less painful.

That’s saying something, after Tyler Stephenson’s two-run, pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the seventh gave the Reds a 3-1 walk-off win in Game 1 and Mike Moustakas’ three-run shot lifted them to a 9-4 victory in Game 2 for a sweep Monday at Great American Ball Park.

The Pirates (14-32) now have lost six consecutive games, their second-longest losing streak of the season. They struck out 25 times in the two games, the second most by the club in a doubleheader since 1901. The record is 32.

“The things that bother me the most are the strikeouts,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “No. 1, we can’t strikeout 25 times, or whatever it was, in essentially 14 innings. And we can’t walk eight games in a seven-inning game, and I think we walked four in the first game. We have to execute better. That’s the thing that bothers me the most.”

The first game of the doubleheader was a makeup for the Aug. 16 game that was postponed when a Reds player tested positive for covid-19.

The second game marked the return from the injured list for Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller, who made his first start since Aug. 1. Keller gave up three runs on two hits — a two-run homer by Brian Goodwin in the second and a solo shot by Joey Votto in the third — while walking four and striking out four in three innings. The Pirates, however, were more interested in Keller’s increased velocity on his fastball after six weeks on the IL.

“I think I was just a little bit too amped up coming back from being on the injured list for the first time in my career in the big leagues,” Keller said. “Just really excited to get back out there. I don’t know if that kinda played a role in the four walks, but I didn’t feel like I was shaky, command-wise. Just felt like I took a little bit extra to control it there.”

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Adam Frazier was hit by a pitch and scored on Colin Moran’s double to the left-field corner. Josh Bell tried to stretch a single but was thrown out at second for the final out before Moran could score. The Pirates challenged the call, but it was upheld after a video review.

Bell cut it to 3-2 in the fourth with a 407-foot homer to center, his third in four days and seventh of the season. Ke’Bryan Hayes gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead in the fifth by hitting a breaking pitch for a two-out homer, a 404-foot shot to left. The Pirates drew three consecutive walks to load the bases, but Gregory Polanco popped out to third to end the inning.

“I feel like I’m seeing offspeed even better, with the adjustments that I was making in the offseason, just being on my back side more,” Hayes said. “So being able to put passes on a lot more breaking balls, and I happened to get that one to go out, so yeah it felt really good.”

But Moustakas hit a three-run shot to dead center off lefty reliever Nik Turley for a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth. The Reds scored three runs in the sixth, when Geoff Hartlieb walked four consecutive batters, shortstop Erik Gonzalez committed an error and Hartlieb threw a wild pitch.

The first game saw the Pirates rally to tie it 1-1 on Moran’s home run in the top of the seventh. Sam Howard retired the first two batters in the bottom of the inning before giving up a single to Jose Garcia. Stephenson pinch-hit for leadoff batter Shogo Akiyama and drove a 1-0 pitch 390 feet over the left-field fence. It was the second career homer for the rookie.

The Reds (23-26) got a strong performance from starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, who had 12 strikeouts and retired 14 consecutive batters before Moran connected for a solo home run to start the seventh.

“I’ve seen him a ton, and that’s the best curveball I’ve ever seen him have,” Shelton said of Bauer. “The ability to execute it, the top to bottom on it. The ability to change speeds on it — I think he threw one that was like 70 — that’s what made him effective. We still gave ourselves a chance.”

Bell and Kevin Newman followed with singles to put the go-ahead runs on base before the Reds pulled Bauer for Raisel Iglesias. Shelton used Polanco to pinch hit for Cole Tucker, but Iglesias struck out Polanco and John Ryan Murphy to get out of the jam.

The Reds took a 1-0 lead when Votto homered with two outs in the fourth, driving a sinker 376 feet over the fence in left-center for his eighth of the season.

It was the fifth homer starting pitcher Cody Ponce surrendered this season and the only hit he allowed in four innings. Ponce also gave up two walks and had three strikeouts on 63 pitches but was about to reach a set pitch count of 65.

“I thought he was outstanding. Really, really good,” Shelton said. “His stuff was electric coming out of his hand. … Really happy with how he threw the ball.”