Johnny Cueto exercised his PNC demons from last year as he went the distance defeating the Pirates 4-1 on Tuesday night in front of 11,926 fans.
Pirates starter Edinson Volquez virtually matched Cueto for six innings before allowing the Reds to break through in the seventh. Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier both singled to lead off the inning and scored on a Brayan Pena RBI single. He looked to have had a double, but was called out on a challenge by Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. Frazier would later score on a Zach Cozart RBI single.
“I wanted to attack the strike zone especially with that lineup,” said Volquez. “They’re pretty good, they can take a lot of pitches. I just made good pitches in the first six innings and I just made a couple of mistakes in the seventh. Two strikes to Frazier and he singles on a bad pitch. It was the right bitch, but I couldn’t finish him off.”
The Reds added insurance in the eighth off of Tony Watson when he allowed hits to Billy Hamilton, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce (RBI) to make it 3-0. Cueto finished off the scoring for the Reds by adding insult to injury with a RBI single in the top of the ninth off of Stolmy Pimentel.
The Pirates bats were nonexistent as they recorded only three hits and one run — an Andrew McCutchen solo shot in the ninth — against the righty, who has dominated the Pirates in the 18 innings he has faced them this season (18 IN/1 ER). The only Pirate hits were by Andrew McCutchen in the first and ninth and Travis Snider in the second.
“With the success he had last time, we were looking a little bit different early and we had to adjust mid-game because he wasn’t pitching the same type of thing,” said Hurdle. “When you make pitches and you got that kind of control, that’s a challenge. We have to find a way to do something different. We talked about it, I think we got a plan and we’re going to try something different next time.”
Final Score: Reds 4, Pirates 1
Starters Lines
Volquez (L, 1-1): 7 IN, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s. 100 Pitches (71 Strikes).
Cueto (W, 2-2): CG, 3H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K’s, 3 BB. 117 Pitches (73 Strikes).
These two will be back at it tomorrow evening in the third game of the four game series.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Charlie Morton (PIT): 0-2, 4.32 ERA
(RHP) Alfredo Simon (CIN): 2-1, 0.86 ERA
First pitch is set for 7:05.
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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
