CINCINNATI — It wasn’t enough for Neil Walker and the Pirates to clinch home-field advantage in the wild-card playoff game in front of a national television audience Saturday. They put style points on the board as well.
Walker hit two of the Pirates’ six home runs in a 8-3 win against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. The win improved the Pirates’ record to 93-68 and ensured that the Reds (90-71) will finish behind them in the standings even with a win Sunday.
The two teams will meet at PNC Park Tuesday for a winner-take-all playoff game at 8 p.m., with the winner advancing to the National League Division series.
Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Marlon Byrd, Pedro Alvarez and Andrew Lambo all homered. Five of them came against Reds starter Bronson Arroyo, who allowed six runs on eight hits in 42/3 innings.
Walker hit a full-count fastball up in the zone for his 15th home run of the year with two outs in the third. McCutchen followed suit, taking Arroyo’s hanging slider out for his 21st of the season, and the Pirates had a 2-0 lead.
No sooner had the Reds taken the lead than Alvarez tied the game with his 36th home run. Alvarez took a first-pitch breaking ball high in the zone 431 feet away to the base of the PNC power stacks in right-center field, giving him 874 feet of combined home runs during the past two games.
Walker homered again, this time to center field, on the first pitch of the fifth inning. It wasn’t until Byrd homered into the Reds’ bullpen that Reds manager Dusty Baker had seen enough.
Lambo hit his first major league home run against Logan Ondrusek in the sixth inning. The dugout gave him the silent treatment until Marlon Byrd wrapped him in a bear hug.
Considering Charlie Morton’s start, the Pirates picked a good day for their power display. Morton lacked his command all day and worked into trouble in three of the five innings in which he pitched. He escaped without finished 41/3 innings, allowing three runs and walking five.
Morton made a mess in the first inning when he allowed the first five Reds batters to reach base, but he held them scoreless.
Shin-Soo Choo took Morton’s first pitch off the shoulder in the bottom of the third inning. Morton was the same pitcher who hit Choo with his first pitch of the game June 18 in retaliation for Aroldis Chapman throwing at Walker’s head the previous night, and Homer Bailey hit two Pirates Friday night, but it did not appear intentional.
Choo advanced to second on a ground-out and Joey Votto walked. Brandon Phillips singled, scoring Choo.
Jay Bruce doubled off the wall in left-center field, scoring Votto and Ludwick and giving the Reds a 3-2 lead.
Brandon Phillips fouled a ball off his left shin in the fifth inning. He singled in that at-bat, but left the game as a welt big enough to make out on television monitors swelled on his leg. The Reds announced that X-rays showed no fractures.
First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:12 p.m.
