Field Level Media
May 11, 2021
Adam Frazier homered and JT Brubaker pitched six strong innings Tuesday as the host Pittsburgh Pirates finally solved the Cincinnati Reds for a 7-2 win.
Troy Stokes Jr. added an RBI double and an RBI single, Kevin Newman a run-scoring triple and Phillip Evans an RBI double for Pittsburgh. The Pirates lost their first four games against the Reds this year by a combined 44-9 and, dating to last year, had lost eight straight against Cincinnati.
Brubaker (3-2) allowed one run and five hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Jesse Winker had a homer, two doubles and two RBIs for Cincinnati. Reds starter Jeff Hoffman (2-3) gave up three runs and four hits in four innings with two walks and four strikeouts.
In the first inning, Frazier led off with a single to left, tying his career best with a 12-game hitting streak. Bryan Reynolds moved Frazier to third with a double to left. Two outs later, with Erik Gonzalez at the plate, Frazier scored on a Hoffman wild pitch for a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead.
The Reds tied it in the third. Winker swatted his seventh homer, an estimated 438-foot shot to right-center that bounced into the Allegheny River -- the first homer at PNC Park to land in the river this year.
The Pirates regained the lead in the fourth. Ka'ai Tom was hit by a pitch and scored on Newman's triple to the wall in left-center. Stokes, playing his third major league game, picked up his first career hit, a single to left that drove in Newman for a 3-1 lead.
Pittsburgh tacked on another in the fifth. Reynolds drew a walk and scored on Evans' double to center to make it 4-1.
Cincinnati's Nick Senzel led off the eighth with a single to right and scored on Winker's double to the corner in left to close it to 4-2, with Winker thrown out at third.
Stokes doubled to left in the bottom of the eighth to drive in Newman, who had reached on a fielder's choice, for a 5-2 lead. An out later, Frazier homered to right to make it 7-2. It was his first homer of the season.
--Field Level Media