A long, dreary, damp night … and then defeat

by • Coverage •

By Matt Gajtka
A 56-minute rain delay, then another four hours and 41 minutes of play, is a long time to settle for almost, but that was the Pirates’ fate Thursday night into Friday morning in the 5-4 loss to the Reds at PNC Park that finally finished in the 13th inning at 12:42 a.m.

Brandon Phillips‘ line-drive home run off Rob Scahill to lead off the 13th went down as the deciding blow, but the Pirates were left to wonder exactly how they lost for the fifth time in six games.

“We missed some opportunities tonight in different areas,” Clint Hurdle said after his club dropped to 2-7 in extra-inning games and 2-7 against the fourth-place Reds.

The best of those squandered chances arrived in the 12th, when Andrew McCutchen smoked Pedro Villarreal‘s fastball off the top of the left-field fence. It was inches away from a walkoff, but McCutchen was still at second base with no outs. After an intentional pass to Neil Walker, Jung Ho Kang lined out to first baseman Joey Votto. That was a bad break in and of itself, but Walker compounded the turn of events by wandering too far off the bag. Votto tagged him for an easy double play.

“You’re always working to get something of a secondary lead,” Hurdle said of Walker. “I’m sure he was aware of the positioning behind him. That run isn’t as important as the run in front of him, so hopefully we can learn and do better.”

Following a walk to pinch-hitter Jose Tabata, Francisco Cervelli bounced out to strand McCutchen, who couldn’t help but look back at the Kang lineout as the turning point.

“That can’t happen,” McCutchen said of the double play, “but there’s the chance that ball gets through and I score the winning run. It’s roulette.”

Walker was not immediately available for comment.

• Driving the ball out of the yard wasn’t in the cards for the Pirates on a damp night at PNC Park. Jordy Mercer and Gregory Polanco each appeared to have ended the game in the 11th against Cincinnati closer Aroldis Chapman, only to watch their moonshots die in Billy Hamilton‘s glove on the warning track.

Add in McCutchen’s double in the 12th — one that inspired him to start a home-run trot — and Cervelli’s deep flyout to right-center with two runners on in the eighth, and you couldn’t blame the Pirates for wondering what was going on.

“It is frustrating,” McCutchen said. “More often than not, those balls go out. Tonight, they didn’t. It’s been dead air around here lately. You hate that, but there were other opportunities we weren’t able to finish.”

The Pirates stranded 12 runners, 10 from the sixth inning onward.

“We hit some balls hard and couldn’t find the grass,” Hurdle said. “We hit a few to the deepest part of the ballpark, and it didn’t work for us. I was really pleased with the way our guys went out there and attacked … but we couldn’t find spots where they weren’t playing.”

• All of the waste on the basepaths could have been rendered moot with a clean seventh inning, but the irrepressible Todd Frazier spoiled those plans with a massive two-run home run, his 24th, off Arquimedes Caminero that tied the game, 4-4.

Frazier, who also drove in the Reds’ first run in the opening frame with a hard-hit single, was 3 for 6 with a walk.

“There haven’t been too many that have gotten away from us in the seventh,” Hurdle said. “Not a lot of room for error when you’re playing that late and you’re on the mound.”

Especially not against Frazier, who is 14 for 39 (.358) against the Pirates this year, with five home runs and 10 RBIs.

• Phillips has also done his share of damage in this rivalry. Not only did he cash in three hits — including a run-scoring triple in the second — but he also started this stunning double play in the eighth.

• That spectacular turn preceded a possible baserunning error by Mercer in the ninth, as he decided to stay put at second base on Harrison’s one-out infield single to the left side. Hurdle called it an “instinct play” and said Mercer would have had to break for third immediately to make it.

• Vance Worley has been relegated to mopup duty in recent weeks, not throwing a meaningful pitch since Atlanta’s Christian Bethancourt took him deep for a walkoff homer June 6, but that changed Thursday. Hurdle called on his former starter to follow scoreless outings from Antonio Bastardo, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon, and Worley responded with three scoreless innings, capped by a four-pitch 12th.

“Worley came up big again,” Hurdle said. “Gave us length and got through the middle of the order twice.”

Here’s more from Worley on finding a groove in a high-leverage spot:

• It wouldn’t be a Reds-Pirates series if McCutchen was able to keep his jersey clean at the plate. After being knocked down by an offspeed pitch in Tuesday’s series opener, he was spun around three times Thursday by inside fastballs. Starter Anthony DeSclafani nearly drilled McCutchen twice, and reliever Ryan Mattheus brushed him back in the ninth before getting him to pop up with two outs and the potential winning run at third base.

“As a man, that gets to you,” McCutchen said. “I wanted to grind it out and just do something. You get brushed back and you say, ‘I’m gonna try to hit this ball 500 feet.’ But that’s not the way to do it. You gotta stay within yourself. I’ve been around here long enough to know that.”

• Way back at the start of this one, A.J. Burnett pushed through a difficult first three frames to complete six innings and spare a taxed bullpen at least somewhat. He threw 110 pitches, one short of his season high, and left with the Pirates ahead.

“I would have gone nine if they wanted me to,” Burnett said. “You gotta go deeper if you want to win games. You’ve got to make a pitch no matter what happens. Just trying to go out there and hit spots.”

Burnett left some pitches up while navigating through nine baserunners in the first four innings. He closed three innings with strikeouts — he had five overall — and induced an inning-ending double play in the fourth.

Burnett also chipped in with the bat, lining a two-run single in the second to put the Pirates up 3-2. It was his first multiple-RBI hit in his 558th career plate appearance.

“I got my bat in the right spot,” Burnett said. “I was just excited. Had a chance to talk to Votto. Don’t get that chance very often.”