The Pirates faced off against the Reds this weekend in a series that was extremely competitive and featured a multitude of huge moments, providing for a memorable set even if it didn’t go the Pirates’ way.
Game one featured Paul Skenes on the mound matched up against lefty Andrew Abbott, who has given the Pirates fits in the past. Skenes continued his odd year, completely falling apart in the second inning, allowing four runs. He was extremely good otherwise, remaining scoreless besides this second inning, but his overall line was poor. In good news, Konnor Griffin made his return from the IL and homered to lead off the game, along with tallying another hit on the day. Marcell Ozuna and Esmerlyn Valdez both smashed homers as well en route to multi-hit days, and the Pirates eventually tied the game at 4-4 going into the eighth inning after Brandan Bidois and Isaac Mattson shut down the Reds offense. Unfortunately, Mason Mongomert struggled heavily, allowing two runs on a Noelvi Marte shot that gave Cinci a lead they wouldn’t give up, and the Pirates dropped game one of the series.
Game two wasn’t much better. Jared Jones gave up four runs in just 4.2 innings of work, but luckily, Chase Burns wasn’t getting the job done on the other side either. Brandon Lowe smashed his 20th home run of the year in the third inning – a three run shot that gave the Bucs the lead. Unfortunately, Jones gave this lead up, and then Evan Sisk had a rare poor performance, giving up two earned runs and only recording a single out. Still, going into the seventh inning, the Bucs were down just 6-4, and a rally finished off by a Ryan O’Hearn double left the game tied moving into the late stages of the game. Esmerlyn Valdez then gave the Bucs the lead with his second homer in two days in the eighth, and on came Gregory Soto for the save. Unfortunately, Soto got absolutely destroyed, giving up the lead via a Eugenio Suarez three run homer to the opposite field, and the game was essentially over.
The Pirates needed to bounce back in game three to leave the series at .500, and bounce back they did. Mitch Keller was good not great – giving the Pirates six innings of four tun ball while working around traffic. Brady Singer was a little worse, giving up five in 4.1 innings. It looked like Singer was going to be knocked out of the game earlier, but he was able to get out of multiple jams, including a bases loaded no out one in the fourth inning. The Bucs scored their runs on a Tyler Callihan three run shot, a Ryan O’Hearn solo dinger, and a Esmerlyn Valdez ground rule double, and the Bucs had a 5-4 lead heading to the second half of the game. Thankfully, the bullpen locked down the Reds offense the rest of the game, as Carmen Mlodzinski and Dennis Santana both were able to work around traffic to throw up scoreless frames each. It was still a close game going into the eighth inning when a lengthy rain delay hit, but when the game resumed, the Pirates found another life. O’Hearn pounded his second homer of the game, this one almost leaving the stadium. And yet, we didn’t know that wasn’t going to be even close to the longest shot of the day, as immediately after, Esmerlyn Valdez hit one 461 feet – the seventh longest home run in PNC history. Valdez homered in all three games of the series, and looked to have claimed a legit role on the team going forward.
While this was a series loss, there were still plenty of positives. Konnor Griffin came back, Ryan O’Hearn and Tyler Callihan stayed hot, and Esmerlyn “The Magician” Valdez was absolutely torrid. If this team can start pitching well again, it is a real contender with this lineup, which is one of the best in the entire league.
Series MVP has to be The Magician, who homered in all three games. All three homers were also big momentum swings, even if the first two didn’t result in a win.
The Bucs travel to Philadelphia for a very hard four game set versus the Phillies starting on Monday. Braxton Ashcraft will get the ball and face struggling veteran Aaron Nola to kick it off. Lets Go Bucs!
