The Reds lost to the Pirates already today, and by golly they’ll get a chance to make it twice later

The two best players on the Pittsburgh Pirates, in all likelihood, are outfielder Bryan Reynolds and 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes. As the Cincinnati Reds poured over the game plan for the first of today’s two games against Pittsburgh, I’d wager there was probably a few words written out in big letters that said don’t let the two best players on the Pirates roster beat you.

Seeing as we all know how well things stick to the game plan around these parts, it should come as little surprise to find that both Reynolds and Hayes socked homers off the Reds in Pittsburgh’s 6-1 victory in Great American Ball Park. Both had multi-hit games, even, while rookie Cal Mitchell got in on the homering action, too.

It was yet another frustrating start for fill-in starter Luis Cessa, who came a pitch away from clearing 6.0 IP before Mitchell took him yard for a 3-run blast. That upped his yield to 5 ER in 5.2 IP, though considering he’s a reliever being tasked with this kind of load he honestly pitched much more respectably than his ERA will now reflect.

Kyle Dowdy, freshly on the roster as of this morning, fired 2.1 scoreless IP of relief before Hunter Strickland yielded his daily run to finish the Pittsburgh scoring. The Reds, meanwhile, mustered only a lone run when TJ Friedl crossed the plate on a Kyle Farmer ribbie, since all that Farmer can do anymore is harvest ribbies.

The Reds will now turn to their bullpen to cover the entirety of the second game of the day, something that surely will go swimmingly. That game will begin at 6:40 PM ET, and surely will be an entertaining one.