cincinnati reds pittsburgh pirates Brady singer
Cincinnati Reds starter Brady Singer struggled but got through five innings Wednesday to hand off a one-run game to the bullpen.
PITTSBURGH – Nothing came quick or easy this week for the Cincinnati Reds during a one-city road trip to play the last-place Pirates that was supposed to be about the quickest and easiest of the season.
Just ask the three broadcasters who missed the bus to the airport on the way out of Great American Ball Park Sunday and wound up spending 3 1/2 hours driving to Pittsburgh instead of taking the 45-minute charter.
“Never seen that in my 45 years in baseball,” said radio voice Jeff Brantley, who was not one of the lollygaggers.
“Fortunately, we all get along, so we were able to turn it into a fun little road trip,” said radio man Tommy Thrall, who was.
Not that Thrall and rental-car road-tripping pals Chris Welsh and John Sadek would have missed much if they’d taken a wrong turn in Wheeling.
A Reds team riding a four-game heater into Pittsburgh looked punchless for all but two innings at the end of their series-opening win, scoring one run the rest of the three-gamer and losing the series despite another week of good pitching.
By the time they finished a 3-1 loss Wednesday, a thunderstorm was moving into Pittsburgh for the fitting conclusion to an 18-inning stretch that included one Reds run, nine Reds hits and just one hit in 10 tries with men in scoring position – none of those opportunities coming after Wednesday’s third inning.
“There’s no magic potion, I’m telling you,” manager Terry Francona said. “It’s just baseball.”
Wednesday’s starter, Brady Singer, labored without his best stuff, but got through five good enough innings to keep the Reds within a run at that point.
Reds starters have a 1.70 ERA over their last seven games as they anticipate the return of Hunter Greene from the injured list Friday after two weeks recovering from a mild groin strain.
Meanwhile, they headed into Thursday’s off day with a longer-than-anticipated charter flight home, regardless of how many in the traveling party made the flight.
“It’s obviously not what we wanted to do (in Pittsburgh),” Singer said. “It’s a long season. we’re going to have these things happen, up and down. But we get a day off tomorrow and get back to work.”
Just in time to see the first-place Chicago Cubs for the first time this season, after dropping to 7-7 in National League Central play after facing the three other teams in the division.
One of the few bright spots of the week for any of the traveling crew — road warriors or air travelers — was the discovery by manager Terry Francona that his favorite hot dog spot in nearby New Brighton, where he grew up, could deliver via Uber Eats the 60 dogs he wanted for the trip home, half of them of the “everything” variety that comes with chili and onions.
“I apologize in advance,” he said before the Pirates series finale.
“If you hear there was a problem on the flight, it wasn’t the airplane.”