The Reds didn’t just beat the Pirates on Sunday. They buried them early, rode a dominant Chase Burns start, and navigated a rain-soaked mess at Great American Ball Park to finish off a 10-2 win and a series victory.
Cincinnati came out swinging in the first inning and never let Pittsburgh settle in. Sal Stewart opened the scoring with a solo home run, then the Reds kept the line moving with JJ Bleday’s single, Tyler Stephenson’s double, and Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI knock to make it 3-0 before the Pirates could blink. One inning later, Ke’Bryan Hayes added another jolt with a long homer into left-center, stretching the lead to 4-0.
The game turned muddy fast. In the bottom of the third, the rain came down hard as Mitch Keller tried to work through the conditions and couldn’t hold the line.
A leadoff double, then back-to-back walks loaded the bases and forced Pittsburgh to the bullpen. Noah Murdock didn’t fare much better.
He allowed a sacrifice fly, uncorked a wild pitch, and then gave up a two-out, two-run hit to Elly De La Cruz as Cincinnati pushed the margin to 7-0.
Burns had to pitch through the same ugly weather, and even the first crack in his outing came with some bad luck. He hit the first batter on the first pitch of the inning, then watched a double-play chance to Matt McLain go unfinished when McLain couldn’t handle it cleanly. Bryan Reynolds followed with a single that brought in Pittsburgh’s first run.
Then everything stopped.
The grounds crew came out to battle the puddled, muddy infield, dumping quick dry over and over while the game sat in limbo. The tarp never came out, but the wait dragged on for 25 minutes. Pirates manager Don Kelly went to the umpires and left furious, getting ejected after shouting “LOOK AT THE FIELD” and “IF SOMEONE GETS HURT IT’S ON YOU”.
When play finally resumed, Burns settled right back in. He walked Esmerlyn Valdez, then got a strikeout and a grounder to escape the fourth with only that one run on his line.
From there, Cincinnati kept padding the cushion. JJ Bleday walked to start the bottom of the fourth, and Nathaniel Lowe and Dane Myers followed with back-to-back RBI doubles to make it 9-1.
That was more than enough for Burns, who returned for the fifth and sixth and slammed the door shut. He struck out five straight batters to end his afternoon and finish one of the cleanest performances in a game that was anything but clean.
The bullpen handled the rest until the Pirates finally scratched again in the eighth against Tejay Antone, who allowed a leadoff double and later a two-out RBI single. Cincinnati answered right back in its half of the inning. After Bleday flied out, Stephenson launched one over the right fielder’s head and onto the steps beyond the wall, a blast that could have extra meaning with the trade deadline looming.
Zach McCambley handled the ninth by retiring the side in order, but the final score was already set: Reds 10, Pirates 2.
Sal Stewart’s first-inning homer was his 24th of the year, tying Joey Votto for the second most in a season by a Reds rookie. Frank Robinson’s 38 from 1956 still stands ahead of him.
Lowe finished 3-for-4 with a walk and two doubles, while Stephenson added a double, a walk and the homer. Mark Sheldon of Reds.com noted that Stephenson homered in his first at-bat with the Reds back in 2020, and this one could have been his last with the club.
Burns kept rolling, too. He moved to 13-1, lowered his ERA to 2.35, and now sits at 118.2 innings with 137 strikeouts.
Tuesday August 4th, 6:40pm ET
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