Pirates beat Reds to stretch winning streak to season-best 5 games

Carlos Santana turned his right shoulder, shrugging off a brushback pitch by Cincinnati Reds reliever Ian Gibaut. Santana shrugged off another before taking a called strike on a changeup.

“I knew he was going to try to pitch inside, but I never lost my focus,” Santana said. “I wanted to make good contact.”

When Gibaut threw a four-seam fastball down the middle, the 37-year-old Santana smacked it to the left-center gap for an RBI double that scored 36-year-old Andrew McCutchen from first base.

Santana celebrated at second as the Pirates veterans came through in the clutch for a 4-2 win over the Reds on Friday night before 17,276 at PNC Park to stretch their winning streak to a season-best five games.

“I’m an emotional guy,” Santana said. “We’re playing pretty good baseball. That’s my focus. I had to keep it up. McCutchen and I talk a lot. We’ve both been here a long time. So we try to have fun and help the team.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton also credited catcher Austin Hedges for calling timeout before his at-bat with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing closer David Bednar more time to warm up.

“I think there were a lot of things that the veteran guys did at the end that were really, uh, veteran-ish,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I don’t know if that’s a word, but I’m going to use it.”

With the Pirates (14-7) off to their best start since 1992 — when they won the NL East — and a game behind the Milwaukee Brewers (14-5) for first place in the NL Central, Shelton can use whatever word he wants.

It’s the longest winning streak in baseball at the moment and marks the Pirates’ first five-game win streak since April 14-20, 2019, when they took one game at the Washington Nationals, two at the Detroit Tigers and two at home against the San Francisco Giants.

“Winning five in a row is difficult,” said Shelton, who did it for the first time as Pirates manager. “We’ve done it in a bunch of different ways: We’ve done where we’ve scored a bunch of runs. We’ve done it where we had to create runs like we did today and take advantage of an error. Throughout all of it, our pitching has been really good.”

The Pirates got their 11th consecutive quality start as Mitch Keller allowed two runs on four hits, one walk and one hit batsman with five strikeouts in six innings. Robert Stephenson and Colin Holderman threw scoreless innings to set the table for Bednar’s seventh save.

Connor Joe, who went 3 for 3 with a walk, got the scoring started in the second inning. Joe hit a one-out single to left, followed by Jack Suwinski drawing a full-count walk. A Graham Ashcraft balk put runners on second and third for Mark Mathias, who roped a single to center for a 2-0 Pirates lead.

Keller allowed only one batter to reach base through the first four innings, when he hit Spencer Steer with a pitch in the fourth before giving up a leadoff single to right to Tyler Stephenson in the fifth. Keller then walked Jason Vosler, and Nick Senzel followed by smacking a single to right that scored Stephenson and cut it to 2-1. Vosler scored on Jose Barrero’s sacrifice fly to center to tie the game.

“I got a little out of rhythm there,” Keller said, “but I thought we did a nice job keeping it to two (runs) and nothing else after that.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Rodolfo Castro drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on Hedges’ sacrifice bunt. Bryan Reynolds drew a two-out walk, putting runners on first and second for McCutchen. Ashcraft got him looking at a called third strike with a 98 mph cutter at the bottom of the strike zone to escape unscathed.

Keller gave up a single to Steer to start the sixth, then retired the next three batters on fly balls, with Joe making a sliding catch into foul territory on Wil Myers for the final out. Although Keller threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes, Shelton pulled his starter after the sixth inning.

The Pirates took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth when Joe hit a flare to right for a leadoff single, reached second on a wild pitch by Reds reliever Derek Law, advanced to third on Suwinski’s groundout and scored when shortstop Barrero bobbled a Mathias grounder.

Castro drew a walk to put runners on first and second for Hedges, who singled to left field, but TJ Friedl threw out Mathias at home plate to end the inning and prevent the Pirates from increasing their lead.

McCutchen, who went 0 for 3, drew a two-out walk in the eighth and scored on Santana’s RBI double for the two-run cushion in the seventh that proved the Pirates can win in a variety of ways.

“I think it says a lot about the style of baseball we’re playing,” Joe said. “The pitching staff is doing what they’re doing, right? Unbelievable. Keeping us in games the whole time. We’re grinding out at-bats. We’re running the bases really hard. That type of baseball puts a lot of pressure on the other team. That’s why we’re having a lot of success right now.”