Pirates get stellar effort from Crowe, grand slam from Tucker in win over Reds

The final start of Wil Crowe’s rookie season might have been the best by a Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher all season. Yet it wasn’t enough to get him a win.

While Crowe wasn’t credited with what would have been his fifth victory of the season, the Pirates rallied for an exhilarating win with eight runs in the bottom of the eighth inning — including a grand slam by Cole Tucker — to beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2, on Friday night at PNC Park.

Chris Stratton (7-1) gave up Max Schrock’s two-out RBI single in top of the eighth, allowing the Reds to tie the score at 1-1 and costing Crowe a win on a night when he was borderline brilliant.

The Pirates rallied in the bottom half as singles by Yoshi Tsutsugo, Colin Moran and Anthony Alford loaded the bases with one out. With Michael Perez at the plate Michael Lorenzen threw a wild pitch that allowed Tsutsugo to score the go-ahead run.

Newman then singled up the middle to make it 4-1. Hoy Park followed with a single to add an insurance run.

Tucker then busted the game open by hitting his first career slam into the stands in right field.

HAVE YOURSELF A GAME, COLE TUCKER!!! pic.twitter.com/wEAxh0EuZJ

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) October 2, 2021

Alford and Newman finished with three hits each, and Tucker had two.

Crowe allowed only one hit in six innings as the Pirates won a night after posting their 100th loss of the season.

The right-hander struck out nine and walked two. The Reds’ lone hit was a leadoff single by fellow starting pitcher Luis Castillo in the third inning.

“That’s the best we’ve seen him,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He was unbelievable all night long.”

Crowe set down the last 12 batters he faced following Castillo’s hit. The nine strikeouts matched a career-high for Crowe. He also had that many July 24 against the Giants at San Francisco.

Crowe wound up making a team-leading 25 starts in 2021. He became the first rookie to lead the Pirates in wins since Josh Fogg’s 33 tied Kip Wells in 2002.

The last rookie to lead the Pirates outright in starts in a season was Bill Werle with 27 in 1949.

“This year has been a lot of growing, learning things about myself, how to get through lineups in the big leagues,” Crowe said. “It’s good to go out on a high note. I know I belong (in the major leagues) and my stuff plays.”

It didn’t take long for the Pirates (60-100) to score the game’s first run. Tucker led off the bottom of the first inning with a triple to the right-center field gap off Castillo then scored on Tsutsugo’s groundout.

Tucker, playing second base, also turned in a defensive gem in the seventh inning with the Pirates hanging on to the 1-0 lead. He made a long running, diving catch of a pop fly by Tucker Barnhart then quickly rose to his feet and made a strong throw to first base to double up Eugenio Suarez for an inning-ending double play.

TUCK FOR TWO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/L4YkRGodSF

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) October 2, 2021

“You’re not going to see a better play than that. It was unbelievable,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I didn’t think Tuck had any chance at that. When he made it, it was like ‘Holy cow, that’s a helluva play.’ ”

“I think you can mark this game as the Cole Tucker Game,” Crowe said. “It was just awesome to be a part of it.”

So, what was cooler, the grand slam or the defensive play? Tucker deferred on giving an answer.

“I think in the moment the double play because I didn’t think I had any chance of making the play,” Tucker said. “But grand slams are cool, too. I’ve never had one of those (in the major leagues). That’s a tough question. I haven’t seen the highlights yet. I’ll have a different opinion once I talk to my family.”

The Pirates had a chance to add to the lead in the sixth inning, but a baserunning mistake helped kill that scoring chance.

After Ben Gamel walked, Moran hit a ground ball to rookie shortstop Jose Barrero, who made an errant flip to second base in an attempt to force Gamel. It appeared Gamel had reached third on the play, but he was ruled out for missing second base.

The Reds (82-78) originally appealed the play, but second base umpire John Libka ruled Gamel safe. However, the call was overturned by video review following a challenge by Reds manager David Bell.

The Reds scored a run in the ninth on Barrero’s two-out triple.

Stratton added to his team-high win total despite giving up the tying hit. Amir Garrett (0-4) took the loss after allowing two of the three batters he faced in the eighth inning to reach.

Notes: Rookie right-hander Max Kranick (2-3, 6.23) starts for the Pirates against Tyler Mahle (13-6, 3.54) at 6:35 p.m. Saturday in the middle game of the three-game series. Kranick pitched five shutout innings against the Phillies at Philadelphia last Sunday to get the win. … Reliever Shea Spitzbarth was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis for the fourth time this season and rookie right-hander Miguel Yajure was optioned to Indy. Yajure was tagged for seven runs in two innings Thursday night in a loss to the Chicago Cubs.