Bucs battered by Reds 10-1

The Pittsburgh Pirates came into Saturday’s game on a two-game winning streak and looking for number three against the Cincinnati Reds, but the game was a referendum on the typical overall bad baseball that’s plagued the Buccos all year in a 10-1 defeat.

There was bad hitting. The Bucs were held to one run and four total hits on the day. Two of those hits came from Rodolfo Castro, who finished 2-for-4 and was also responsible for Pittsburgh’s only run of the day with a solo homer in the fourth inning.

In addition, Pittsburgh batters went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and they also struck out 10 total times as a team.

There was bad fielding, with errors attributed to Oneil Cruz (on a throw) and another to Tyler Heineman on catcher interference. Cruz’s eighth error of the year allowed Cincy’s first run to score in the third inning.

There was bad starting pitching. Tyler Beede went four innings, giving up five runs, four of them earned, on six hits with two strikeouts and a walk.

And there was bad relief pitching. Eric Stout gave up five runs on six hits with one strikeout and no walks in just one-third of an inning, which allowed the Reds to turn a convincing lead into a shellacking.

Bad baseball. 2022 in a nutshell. Not much else to say.

The series rubbermatch is this afternoon at 1:35pm.