CINCINNATI — Picture Pirates vs. Reds at Great American Ball Park, and one conjures images of Wednesday night — multiple home runs, multiple hit batters, warned benches and an ejection or four, this series in recent years distilled into one game.
The Pirates won this one, 5-4, and split the rain-shortened series with the Reds. They improved to 18-15 as they head to Chicago for a weekend rematch with the Cubs, who swept them at home last week.
“It was an interesting game all the way around with the warnings,” said David Freese, who hit the exacta with a homer and a hit-by-pitch. “I don’t know if they were warranted or not. We kept fighting. In this park, especially, you can pop a few out and stay in it.”
Through eight innings the Pirates had four hits, and all were solo home runs. Andrew McCutchen, Freese, Jung Ho Kang and Josh Harrison hit balls out of the park, and the teams took a 4-4 tie into the ninth.
The Pirates then won it on two soft singles.
Kang hit a grounder up the middle that Zack Cozart fielded, but threw away, putting Kang on second. Sean Rodriguez bunted him to third, and Jordy Mercer’s bloop single against Ross Ohlendorf brought home the go-ahead run.
It wouldn’t be Pirates-Reds without some batters getting plunked, and they didn’t disappoint Wednesday. Reds starter Alfredo Simon threw high and tight on ball four to Francisco Cervelli in the fourth. His next pitch hit Jung Ho Kang.
“For a guy to get low-bridged [on] 3-0, that was a little interesting, and the next guy to get splattered in the middle of the back, that’s interesting,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Juan Nicasio’s first pitch in the bottom of the inning drilled Brandon Phillips, and umpire crew chief Jeff Kellogg warned both benches.
Four Pirates and two Reds were hit. After surrendering the lead in the ninth, Ohlendorf hit Freese and was ejected.
The Pirates have hit 41 Reds since 2013. The Reds have hit 43 Pirates, the most by any team against any opponent.
“I’m getting hit so much that it now is affecting my at-bat, the way I position myself, the way I’m reading pitches,” said Starling Marte, who was hit and ejected and gets hit all the time.
Two Pirates homered to the opposite field on Simon cutters that didn’t cut enough. McCutchen lined his seventh homer over the wall in the fourth inning and Freese followed suit in the fifth.
Simon got ahead of Kang, the first batter he faced, 0-2 in the top of the seventh. Kang homered on the two-strike curveball to bring the Pirates within one run. Harrison went to the opposite field against Tony Cingrani in the eighth, and he knew it when he hit it.
Nicasio allowed four runs in six innings, but pitched better than that. He needed only 68 pitches and did not walk a batter.
This start resembled the outing he put forth April 29 against the Reds in terms of rhythm and pitch efficiency. That day, he pitched seven scoreless innings with 97 pitched and walked only one.
It also represented a nice bounce-back effort after he allowed eight hits, four runs and three walks in 4⅓ innings May 4.
Simon hit Marte — with an off-speed pitch — in the sixth. Marte stole second, but a review of the play overturned the call and ended the top of the sixth.
Both Marte and Hurdle were ejected after arguing with the umpires in the middle of the inning.
“I’m going to make a couple phone calls [today],” Hurdle said.
“For Marte to get thrown, that complicated things for me.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: May 12, 2016, 2:14 a.m.
