It was one day before April Fool\u2019s Day and a full moon Tuesday night, but the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates played as if it was April Fool\u2019s under a full moon.<\/p>\n
It was frustrating with a capital F for the Reds during an 8-3 loss that ended a three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Start with the starting pitchers.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati\u2019s Brandon Williamson, making his first MLB appearance in a year-and-a-half, was on the struggle bus all night.<\/p>\n
He put the first two Pirates in the game on base then escaped by striking out Marcell Ozuna and Brandon Lowe.<\/p>\n
If that was a soothing moment for him, it only lasted until he took the mound in the second and gave up five runs, including back-to-back home runs by Ryan O\u2019Hearn and Bryan Reynolds.<\/p>\n
It was only 1-0 when O\u2019Hearn came to bat with two outs and two on. Williamson got two strikes, one strike from a major escape, but O\u2019Hearn drilled a three-run homer into the right field moon deck.<\/p>\n
It was Pittsburgh\u2019s fifth game and O\u2019Hearn\u2019s homer was the Pirates first extra base hit by a lefthanded batter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWilliamson got to two outs and two strikes on O\u2019Hearn and obviously that was the big hit of the inning,\u201d Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69cc899f26a8d.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Reds’ Matt McLain fields a ground ball during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo\/Kareem Elgazzar)<\/p>\n
Kareem Elgazzar<\/p>\n
It was the big hit of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was dodging a lot of trouble the whole time,\u201d Francona added about Williamson\u2019s 94-pitch night with 41 out of the strike zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple of innings, Williamson\u2019s strikes-to-balls ratio was probably fifty-fifty. He just wasn\u2019t commanding like he can and will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there was Pittsburgh starter Bubba Chandler, baseball\u2019s top pitching prospect.<\/p>\n
He pitched two perfect innings, striking out four. Then over the next 2 1\/3 innings he couldn\u2019t find home plate if he had a guide dog, GPS and a couple of Sherpas.<\/p>\n
He walked six batters, three in the third and three in the\u00a0fourth. But the Reds could score only one run and that came on an error by Reynolds.<\/p>\n
After the run-producing error, the Reds had runners on second and first with no outs. TJ Friedl bunted up in the air and Chandler snared it and fired to first for a double play.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69cc899f77a8d.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Reds’ Elly de la Cruz rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo\/Kareem Elgazzar)<\/p>\n
Kareem Elgazzar<\/p>\n
Chandler walked the bases loaded in the fifth with one out and his day was done even though he hadn\u2019t given up a hit.<\/p>\n
At the point, the Reds had no hits, but they had seven base runners on six walks and the error.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir guy, as hard as he was throwing (99 to 101 on a steady flow of fastballs). . .we thought we were one hit from jumping back in that game more than once,\u201d Francona told reporters.<\/p>\n
Yohan Ramirez replaced Chandler and struck out both Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz to throttle the threat.<\/p>\n
A home run by Oneil Cruz in the fourth, the third homer off Williamson, had the score at 6-1 when the Reds came to bat in the eighth.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, the bats came alive against Pirates relief pitcher Hunter Barco.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69cc89a145521.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bubba Chandler delivers during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo\/Kareem Elgazzar)<\/p>\n
Kareem Elgazzar<\/p>\n
De La Cruz, batting righthanded, lobbed a 338-foot home run that scraped the paint off the right field foul pole. Sal Stewart followed with a 372-foot home run to right center that ticked the outfielder\u2019s glove before it settled into the seats.<\/p>\n
Then came back-to-back singles by Eugenio Suarez and Dane Myers. It was 6-3 with no outs, two on and the potential tying run at the plate.<\/p>\n
Noelvi Marte popped up and pinch-hitter Nate Lowe hit one between second and first. Second baseman Brandon Lowe made a diving, lunging grab, scrambled to his feet and doubled Myers off first.<\/p>\n
The Pirates put it out of reach in the ninth when Reds relief pitcher Pierce Johnson gave up a single to Nick Gonzales and the second home run of the game by Cruz.<\/p>\n
Cruz loves Great American Ball Park. He has eight home runs in 18 games there.<\/p>\n
The Reds filled the bases in the ninth with two outs but Eugenio Suarez took a called third strike, meaning the Reds were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11.<\/p>\n
On the eighth inning double play that ended the Reds comeback challenge, Francona said, \u201cHe (Brandon Lowe) made a nice play. That was a good play. It\u2019s hard to fault Myers. You don\u2019t want to get doubled off, but when Myers sees the ball go over the first baseman\u2019s head he\u2019s thinking third. I understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69cc89a1a8698.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
General view of Great American Ball Park during the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo\/Kareem Elgazzar)<\/p>\n
Kareem Elgazzar<\/p>\n
Pirates second baseman Lowe, who made a diving catch to start the double play, also made a diving stop on a 109 miles per hour ground ball by De La Cruz and threw him out to end the third with a runner on base.<\/p>\n
That was two sensational defensive plays by Lowe, rated the worst defensive player in the entire league last season, tied with Kansas City\u2019s Jonathan India, the former Reds second baseman.<\/p>\n
After going 8-for-8 on challenges during their first four games, Sal Stewart and Dane Myers made early-game challenges and were wrong, so the Reds had no challenges left after the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the first time we didn\u2019t do a very good job,\u201d Francona told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ll tighten that up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reds will have to tighten everything up Wednesday afternoon when Andrew Abbott goes to the mound to face Paul Skenes, last year\u2019s Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was one day before April Fool\u2019s Day and a full moon Tuesday night, but the Cincinnati Reds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[29827,73,75,74,726],"class_list":["post-153959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}