PITTSBURGH –– Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene, the face of the franchise pitching on a new six-year contract extension, took the mound on Sunday with the burden that comes with being the No. 1 starter in a rotation.
The Reds had lost five straight entering Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the team desperately needed its best starting pitcher to deliver his best start of the season and prevent a sweep at PNC Park.
Greene did his part on Sunday, but the Reds offense is in such a bad place that one run across six innings by Greene still wasn’t enough to snap the Reds’ losing streak. The Pirates beat the Reds, 2-0, punctuating the low point of a disappointing start to the Reds’ season.
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Greene was nearly flawless against the Pirates. He allowed a leadoff double on a fastball down the middle during the first inning, but Greene didn’t make another mistake. He showed big improvement with pitch sequencing, and he made his changeup a bigger part of the game plan than he had at any point of his two-year MLB career.
Greene was elevating 99 mph fastballs at the top of the strike zone and overpowering Pirates’ hitters. His slider had more horizontal bite and forced some uncomfortable swings. Greene executed his goal of using his changeup as a set-up pitch to left-handed batters.
And yet somehow, he was outpitched by Vince Velasquez, a career fifth starter who was relegated to bullpen work with the Chicago White Sox last year.
Velasquez had his best game in years, throwing seven shutout innings. He throws an average 95 mph fastball and an accurate slider, and he has never been a strikeout pitcher. The Pirates signed him during the offseason to log some innings for a young starting rotation. Velasquez left dozens of pitches over the middle of the plate, and all the slumping Reds could do was hit weak pop outs.
The Reds and the Pirates both lost 100 games last season. Now, the Pirates have a 16-7 record, and the last-place Reds are 7-15.
Takeaways from Reds vs. Pirates
1. Greene, who allowed one run and four hits in six efficient innings, saw his slider working better than ever. The Pirates swung at 17 sliders on Sunday, and they whiffed at 11 of them. In his first game since signing a contract extension as well as his first game since suffering a leg contusion, Greene showed again why he can develop into one of the best starting pitchers in MLB. The Pirates added a run in the eighth inning against Reds reliever Fernando Cruz.
2. The Reds only managed two hits off Velasquez, who had his sixth career double-digit strikeout game. Following Saturday’s loss, where the Reds consistently put runners in scoring position and consistently struck out to end those scoring chances, the Reds didn’t create many scoring opportunities against the starter with a career 4.94 ERA. Their best chance to score came in the eighth inning against the Pirates’ bullpen when Tyler Stephenson hit a pinch-hit double with one out. But Jonathan India got ahead 3-0 in the count before striking out looking, and TJ Friedl grounded out to end the inning.
3. The Reds couldn’t have asked for more from their starting rotation in Pittsburgh. Luke Weaver made one bad pitch on Thursday and threw six innings in his season debut. Graham Aschraft battled through five innings and overcame inconsistent command to keep the Reds in Friday’s game. Luis Cessa responded to one of the worst starts in Reds history and allowed just two runs in 4 ⅔ innings on Saturday. Then Greene looked like a star on Sunday, but the Reds offense has been struggling so much that those performances didn’t lead to wins.
Stat of the day
Over Greene’s last 12 innings pitched, he has only allowed one run while striking out 12 batters.
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