It took 11 innings, but the Pittsburgh Pirates saw its comeback attempt come to an end.
This game came down to a bullpen battle, and Ryan Vogelsong was the last to flinch as he fell to 1-1 on the season.
Here are some takeaways from the game.
Locke not to blame
Jeff Locke has always been the easy target to blame, but his seven innings of work in which he allowed three runs on four hits should not draw ire.
Every start, fans automatically appear to want Locke to fail. When he deserves blame, it should be given but here it should not be.
Let’s be honest, the bullpen has not wowed anyone and proved manager Clint Hurdle correct pitching a scoreless seven innings.
Sure, three runs were scored in that sixth inning and blew the small lead, but there were at least four bigger mistakes in Sunday afternoon’s game that did not involve Locke’s pitching.
Locke commanded the ball well and his off-speed showed a lot of promise.
This is now two consecutive solid starts from Locke, and in the seventh inning, he showed he is able to pitch past the fifth-inning block he seems to stumble upon.
Defensive positioning
To borrow from LeBron James, not one, not two, not three. Four. Four errors cost the Pirates this game.
The defense has done a great job all season, but Sunday afternoon was downright inexcusable.
Consistently bad routes were taken in the outfield, the outfield’s more shallow defense was exposed and the defenders just felt uncomfortable all day.
Gregory Polanco got exposed twice. Once in the eighth inning on a ball he did not judge well off the bat, which helped allow Jared Hughes to surrender his first run this season.
His big error came in the decisive 11th inning, which plated the winning run.
Starling Marte also was not exempt as he took a bad route, got exposed and completely missed on a diving attempt. This started the 11th inning and resulted in a Eugenio Suarez triple.
There certainly is plenty of room to improve based on Sunday’s loss. The Pirates could not quite finish their opportunities, but it is the defense that was clearly off its game the most.
Battling until the end
Terrible defense can be an easy excuse to just pack it in. After all, a big series against the Chicago Cubs represents the next matchup.
Reds manager Bryan Price kept Tim Adleman in the game into the seventh inning, clearly not trusting his bullpen.
Adleman pitched a fantastic game, but the bullpen let him down.
The bullpen kept losing the lead, yet the Reds were one out away from winning the game in the regular nine innings.
Then Ross Ohlendorf flinched allowing John Jaso to hit a home run above the Clemente Wall in right field. It was his second home run in as many days.
Up next
Gerrit Cole (2-2 2.78 ERA) will pitch against the Cubs and Jason Hammel (3-0 0.75 ERA). Cole is 7-1 with a 2.88 ERA in nine career starts against the Cubs.
Photo credit: @Pirates
