Reds complete sweep with 4-0 shutout of Pirates

Hunter Greene threw seven innings to earn his first-ever victory against Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had never lost to Hunter Greene — not even a game where he pitched a combined no-hitter over eight innings — but the Cincinnati Reds ace put that streak to an end.

After the Pirates stranded runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings, Greene retired the final 17 batters he faced in a dominant performance against a deficient offense.

The Reds right-hander recorded eight strikeouts while holding the Pirates to two hits and one walk over seven scoreless innings for a 4-0 win Sunday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds (8-8) swept the threegame NL Central series against the last-place Pirates (5-11), who return to PNC Park on Monday for a seven- game homestand. They play four games against the Washington Nationals and three over the weekend against the Cleveland Guardians.

Greene (2-1) averaged 99.3 mph on 54 four-seam fastballs, regularly touching triple digits while generating 14 called strikes and 10 whiffs on 31 swings. He got six whiffs on 16 swings at his slider and mixed in a splitter in throwing 71 of his 98 pitches for strikes.

“He was locked in,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the 93.7 FM postgame show. “And once he got locked in, he got really locked in and the execution of all three pitches was really good. You can’t let opportunities get away. We had some opportunities early, and we let them get away. Then he got settled in, and we saw how good he was.”

Previously, the Pirates had always found a way to beat Greene, who was 0-4 against them and even lost one of his best performances. Greene tossed 7 1/3 no-hit innings May 15, 2022 at PNC Park, only for Ke’Bryan Hayes to beat out a bases-loaded ground ball against reliever Art Warren in the eighth inning for a 1-0 win.

This time, the Pirates starting lineup didn’t include regular starters Hayes, Joey Bart, Andrew McCutchen and Tommy Pham. Instead, it had six players batting below the Mendoza Line, and the batting order was exposed when the Pirates failed to capitalize early by going 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

“We can’t let opportunities be squandered,” Shelton said. “We have to capitalize on our opportunities when we do have them. The other thing is, we can’t look around and say, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t in our lineup.’ The guys that are here need to execute, need to get the job done.”

In the first inning, Bryan Reynolds doubled and Oneil Cruz drew a walk with one out, but Greene got Endy Rodriguez to fly out to right. Reynolds moved to third on the flyout and Cruz stole second, but Alexander Canario lined out to shortstop to end the inning.

In the second, Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a fly ball that skipped under the glove of center fielder TJ Friedl for a one-out triple but was stranded when Greene struck out Tsung-Che Cheng and second baseman Santiago Espinal made a leaping grab to snare a Henry Davis liner to right.

The Reds took advantage of their opportunities in the third against Pirates right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski (1-2), who gave up four runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings. The walks came against No. 9 hitter Austin Wynns in a 31-pitch third inning and No. 8 hitter Noelvi Marte in the fifth, and both scored runs.

“I thought he threw the ball all right,” Shelton said. “We walked the eight- and nine-hole hitter. He threw a 30-plus pitch inning. Then he bounced back. It looked like that second or third time through, that velocity dipped down a little bit, the command dipped down a little bit. We have to stay away from walks, especially at the bottom of the order.”

Mlodzinski didn’t get much help defensively. After Wynns drew a full-count walk in the third, Friedl followed with a chopper that bounced over leaping first baseman Endy Rodriguez’s outstretched glove for a double. With runners on second and third, Espinal hit a bloop single into shallow right-center to score both runners and give the Reds a 2-0 lead.

Mlodzinski followed a six-pitch fourth inning by walking Marte on four pitches to start the fifth. Marte stole second base, advanced to third on a single by Wynns and scored when Friedl hit a grounder to first and Rodriguez tried to turn a double play instead of throwing home. Friedl beat the throw to first and reached third on a sharp grounder down the first-base line by Espinal.

“The ball should’ve gone to the plate there,” Shelton said. “With the depth we’re at, with where we’re at, that ball has to be thrown to the plate.”

The Pirates pulled Mlodzinski for lefty Joey Wentz, but Elly De La Cruz singled to right to drive in Friedl for a 4-0 lead. Wentz walked Gavin Lux to load the bases but got Spencer Steer to pop up on an infield fly and Jeimer Candelario to fly out to left.

Reds relievers Ian Gibault and Tony Santillan extended Greene’s streak to 23 consecutive batters without reaching base by pitching a pair of perfect innings to finish off the punchless Pirates, who have the worst team batting average (.184) in the major leagues and a record that is the reverse of their start through 16 games last season.

“It’s a little different. The last couple years, we started off playing pretty well then gone through stretches,” Shelton said. “We have to figure out some things offensively. We have to figure out the way to create opportunities. … It’s a situation where we’ve got to get going.”