It's A Bird...It's A Plane...No, It's...Gerrit Cole! Bucs Ride Cole Train To 1-0 Victory

Great games tossed by Gerrit Cole and Luis Castilla. The only early scoring chance was for the Bucs in the fourth when J-Bell doubled with two outs and then tried to score on Freeser's knock to left, only to be cut down at home by Adam Duvall (who leads the NL with 13 outfield assists). It was an aggressive send of a slow runner, but with two outs a no-brainer wave. The Reds then threatened by putting runners at second and third with two away in the fifth, but Cole Train escaped with a bouncer to second. Gerrit took things into his own hands by hammering the first pitch of the sixth over the wall. He worked another frame before exiting; he went seven shutout frames, giving up five hits and whiffing six on 100 tosses. Wandy Peralta put away the Bucs in the eighth; Juan Nicasio did the same in return. Mike Lorenzen did the honors in the ninth for the Redlegs and Felipe Rivero booked it by striking out the side.

He was a one man gang tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Cole was Superman tonight; kept his cool, tossed a gem, and the only home run on his blotter was his own. He was the name of the game.

Notes:

• Oh, surprise: the Pirates placed Cervy on the DL with left quadriceps irritation & recalled Elias Diaz, who must be dizzy by now. This will be Amore's fourth trip to the DL this year.
• Perhaps the key play: in the seventh, Scooter Gennet lined a ball to right, and the sometimes defensively indifferent Fraze made a nice play and throw to keep him at first; two pitches later, the Reds bounced into a DP to erase the last Cincy runner of the night.
• This was the first time Cole had defeated the Reds in his career; it took 10 starts to earn.
• The Pirates had four hits and whiffed 10 times tonight; that's 25 K in two evenings.
• Gerrit Cole's homer was the third of his career and first of the year. Per Elias Sports: Cole is only Pirates pitcher ever to homer in 1-0 win and the first in MLB since the Rays’ Nate Karns v the Phillies (July 2015).
• Huddy and Steven Brault were down for maintenance today and not available from the pen.
• RHP Casey Sadler has been promoted to Indy.