Opening Day! Yet another Major League Baseball season begins afresh as the Pittsburgh Pirates traveled one state over to face the Cincinnati Reds down the Ohio River.
The oddest run of the game was scored in the third inning to start the scoring. Billy Hamilton was the man to score down from third base on a balk by Francisco Liriano. Jay Bruce also managed to get a run off of Liriano, but this time it was the more routine way of hitting one over the fence. It was 409 feet to right field and it gave them a 2 run advantage.
Johnny Cueto was impressive on the mound for the Reds though, not allowing any runs through 7 innings and striking out 10. He threw 100 pitches and was able to only give up 4 hits and one walk. Cueto definitely earned the win, but would not get credit for the win in this contest.
That is because pitcher Kevin Gregg blew the lead when he gave up a 2 run Home Run to Andrew McCutchen in the top of the eighth that tied up the game, and then Gregg was quickly pulled from the game. Jumbo Diaz (1-0, 0.00 ERA) struck out Starling Marte in order to get out of the inning, but the damage had been done on the home run, and the game was tied up at 2 a piece.
Tony Watson (0-1, 27.00 ERA) came in out of the bullpen to start the bottom of the eighth for the Pirates, and started off well, striking out pinch hitter Chris Dominguez on just 4 pitches. But things quickly fell apart after that, as both Billy Hamilton and Joey Votto would be on base when Todd Frazier hit a 3 run Home Run to left field (396 feet) to give the Reds a 3 run advantage.
Aroldis Chapman got the save as he would strike out Sean Rodriguez and Francisco Cervelli to get the game to it's final out. Jordy Mercer would fly out to right and the Reds had their first victory of the season.
The Cincinnati Reds (1-0) will play the Pittsburgh Pirates (0-1) again on Wednesday at 7:10 PM ET. The Reds will put Mike Leake on the mound to face against Gerrit Cole of the Pirates. But at least baseball is back, and there are several games left in the season.