Francisco Liriano allowed two hits in seven innings but came away with a no-decision after a 5-2 Opening Day loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
“It’s great for Opening Day to come and it’s just as great when it gets by you,” Manager Clint Hurdle said to assembled media. “We always are challenged when we see Cueto… We made him pitch that was the one upside. I thought our guys went up there and battled. We showed some resiliency to come back and get two late.”
Liriano, who was starting his second Opening Day and did so against Johnny Cueto. Liriano threw 92 pitches, 60 of which went for strikes.
Liriano’s first blemish came in the third inning. With Cueto on first base via the walk, Billy Hamilton grounded into a force play. The speedy Hamilton advanced to third base on a Joey Votto single. Todd Frazier then stepped to the plate and Liriano balked scoring Hamilton.
The second run was a Jay Bruce home run on a line drive over the right-center field wall.
The Pirates had an opportunity with Gregory Polanco on first base in the opening inning. Andrew McCutchen hit a hard ground ball that Frazier dove for. Frazier saved what likely would have been extra bases getting McCutchen out.
Coming into the contest, Cueto had now won his past five decisions against the Pirates with the last loss coming in the 2013 Wild Card game. The last time the Pirates defeated Cueto in the regular season was May 30, 2012. Cueto threw 100 pitches with 70 of them coming for strikes. Cueto differed the tempo of his release which threw Pirates hitters off and he struck out 10 batters including the 1,000th of his career.
Cueto departed the contest after seven innings and Kevin Gregg entered. Gregg was out of options and chosen to make the team over Sam LeCure, a reliever who had been highly depended on for the past three to four seasons.
The first batter that greeted Gregg was Andrew Lambo. Lambo battled with Gregg for 13 pitches fouling off eight consecutive offerings before flying out to the warning track on center field. Though he was out, Lambo was congratulated by Hurdle upon returning to the dugout.
“Andrew battled… Lambo hit his ball hard and drove it well,” said Hurdle. “It was just a really professional at-bat.”
This was the turning point of the contest for the Pirates as Josh Harrison got his second hit on a single that dropped in front of Marlon Byrd. Byrd would redeem himself when Polanco flied out and Byrd on the warning track jumped out and got an out while colliding with the wall.
From there it took one pitch, a 90-mile-per-hour fastball from Gregg to McCutchen for the game to be tied. McCutchen, like Harrison, went 2-for-4 in the contest.
Neil Walker got a hit off left-handed reliever Manny Parra however was relieved by right-handed pitcher Jumbo Diaz [1-0] who struck out Starling Marte.
Tony Watson [0-1] pitched the bottom of the eighth and after a strikeout to open the game surrendered singles to Hamilton and Votto. Hamilton then stole third without a throw. Frazier however once again changed the course of the game, this time with his bat. Watson left a pitch up and inside and Frazier received a curtain call from the largest ever attendance at Great American Ballpark as his three-run home run put the Reds back in the lead.
Watson’s last home run allowed was August 18 against the Washington Nationals and Watson gave up five in all of 2014.
Aroldis Chapman earned his first save of the season after setting the Pirates down in order on nine pitches. The Pirates out-hit the Reds 7-5 in the game.
Gerrit Cole will make his regular season debut against Mike Leake on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. Cole is 0-1 against the Reds in two career starts.
Of note: The Opening Day loss was the 10,000th for the Pirates as a franchise… The game was delayed 35 minutes due to heavy rain prior to the top of the sixth inning.
