After a solid effort on the mound and at the plate in a big win on Saturday, the Cincinnati Reds will look for more of the same as they go for a series split in the finale against the host Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.
The Reds, who blew a 5-0 lead in a 6-5 loss on Friday, built an early lead again on Saturday, but expanded it and never looked back on their way to a 10-2 victory.
“The style of play, I think, is exactly what we want,” Cincinnati manager David Bell said. “Always playing hard. It was nice for it to work out. Aggressive baserunning. Big at-bats offensively, it was a good game.”
Shortstop Elly De La Cruz paced the offense, going 3-for-4 while driving in two runs, scoring three, and picking up his major league-leading 61st stolen base. The 22-year-old has had a good week at the plate, hitting .421 (8-for-19) over his past five games.
Consecutive victories have been hard to come by for the Reds of late after a four-game winning streak that concluded Aug. 14.
Cincinnati turns to veteran Nick Martinez (6-6, 3.64 ERA) on Sunday. It will be his fifth straight start after appearing in relief in 26 of his first 31 games. Before his current stretch, which began Aug. 5, he hadn’t started a game since May 22.
The right-hander will be pitching on three days’ rest since working 4 1/3 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday. Martinez is 0-1 with a 20.25 ERA in four career appearances against the Pirates, all in relief and covering just 2 2/3 innings.
Luis Ortiz (5-4, 3.56) will counter for Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old right-hander will make his 10th start of the season.
Ortiz’s first start of the season came June 26 against the Reds, and he surrendered just one run on four hits in six innings to pick up a win. He struck out seven without walking a batter.
In three appearances, including two starts, against the Reds, Ortiz is 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA over 15 1/3 innings.
After a strong July, in which Ortiz put up a 1.75 ERA while holding opponents to five runs on 19 hits in 25 2/3 innings across five games, August has been tougher. In four games covering 22 1/3 innings, Ortiz has allowed 16 runs on 18 hits in 22 1/3 innings.
The Pirates are hoping for a longer outing than they got from Jake Woodford on Saturday. The starter did not make it out of the fourth inning.
“We didn’t play good baseball,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “We made baserunning mistakes, we made defensive mistakes, we didn’t play well.”
It was a tough night on the mound for the Pirates. Hunter Stratton replaced Woodford in the fourth and made only four pitches, the last one a wild pitch. He tried to cover the plate on the wild pitch, failed to catch the throw to him, and then injured his left knee while chasing the ball down at the backstop. Two runs scored on the play.
In good pitching news, reliever Jalen Beeks stepped in and continues to be effective since being acquired from the Colorado Rockies last month. The lefty got five straight outs after replacing Stratton, dropping his ERA to 0.96 in 9 1/3 innings with the Pirates.
“He’s done a good job,” Shelton said. “… He’s been very effective on both right-handers and left-handers.”
Pittsburgh is trying to win its second series in three tries since the Pirates lost 10 straight games.
