CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Oneil Cruz had a three-run homer, his third in two games, Paul Skenes allowed one run in five innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds 8-3 on Wednesday to take the three-game series.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Eugenio Su\u00e1rez had a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the sixth inning for the Reds
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Cruz went 5 for 13 with three home runs and six RBIs in the series
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Reds starter Andrew Abbott (0-1) retired the first two Pirates hitters before Bryan Reynolds singled to right and Marcell Ozuna drew a walk<\/p>\n
Bryan Reynolds had a two-run shot, and Nick Gonzales added a two-run double during the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
Eugenio Su\u00e1rez had a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the sixth inning for the Reds.<\/p>\n
Cruz went 5 for 13 with three home runs and six RBIs in the series. The power-hitting outfielder has gone deep nine times in the 19 games he has played in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Reds starter Andrew Abbott (0-1) retired the first two Pirates hitters before Bryan Reynolds singled to right and Marcell Ozuna drew a walk. Cruz then connected on a 2-1 curveball that was over the bottom part of the plate and drove it 407 feet over the wall in right field.<\/p>\n
Skenes (1-1) returned to his All-Star form after giving up five runs in two-thirds of an inning last Thursday in the season opener against the New York Mets. The reigning NL Cy Young winner allowed three hits, walked two and struck out five.<\/p>\n
The right-hander gave up two walks in the first three innings before Elly De La Cruz led off the fourth with a base hit to right. Two batters later, Nathaniel Lowe had an RBI double to right-center, snapping the Reds\u2019 31-inning scoreless streak against Skenes.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh took a 4-1 lead in the sixth when Cruz scored after Spencer Horwitz was walked by Connor Phillips with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n
Su\u00e1rez got the Reds within a run in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer to left, his second of the season.<\/p>\n
Up next\n<\/p>\n
Pirates: Have their home opener on Friday against Baltimore. RHP Mitch Keller (0-0, 0.00 ERA) gets the start.<\/p>\n
Reds: Open a seven-game road trip on Friday against Texas. RHP Brady Singer (0-0, 6.75 ERA) makes his second start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Oneil Cruz had a three-run homer, his third in two games, Paul Skenes allowed one run in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[41445,2722,2724,15056,363,3,6454,100813,48238,48237,7739,99,452],"class_list":{"0":"post-559991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-app-sports","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-cincinnati","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-ohio","15":"tag-ohio-cincinnati-reds","16":"tag-ohio-cincinnati-top-stories","17":"tag-ohio-dayton-top-stories","18":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}