It was the Perfect Storm.
And things got off swimmingly in Game One of a pair of seven-inning doubleheader games, a 4-2 victory behind some escape pitching by Luis Castillo.
Due to a postponement earlier in the season, the Reds were the home team for Game Two and it did no good.
They were submerged by shoddy defensive work and lost, 4-3, a disheartening split when a sweep was sorely needed.
Castillo was 0-and-5 and the Reds had lost six of his seven starts when he took the mound. He pitched six innings and gave up two runs and seven hits, twice pitching out of dangerous situations.
Trevor Bauer started Game Two and gave up only one earned run over six innings, but three unearned runs did him in — a big error by first baseman Joey Votto and his own wild pitch that let in a run.
After Votto’s error in the fourth led to three runs, including Bauer’s wild pitch, Bauer threw a tantrum in the dugout after the inning, shouting at his teammates.
“I was mad,” he said. “It takes a lot of intensity and focus to win. I was upset with the way that inning transpired on my part and my team’s part.
“When you are on a big level, it’s a thin margin, man,” he added. “We haven’t stacked together enough complete efforts consistenly in order to win. I wasn’t happy with the way I let that spiral out of control and I wasn’t happy with the way the inning went.”
In the opening game, the Pirates were as generous as the Salvation Army early on,
The Reds had a runner on first with two outs in the second. Curt Casali lined one directly at first baseman Josh Bell. Instead of the third out, the ball ricocheted off his glove for an error.
Jose Garcia, the 22-year-old rookie shortstop, singled to left for his first major league RBI and a 1-0 Reds lead.
Votto led off the third with a sharp single. Nick Castellanos hit a hard double-play ball toward shortstop. But the Pirates were overshifted and nobody covered second, giving Castellanos an infield hit.
Eugenio Suarez singled for a run. Jesse Winker blooped one to shallow center, an easy catch for shortstop Erik Gonzalez. But he peeled off and let the ball plop to the grass for another run and a 3-0 Reds lead.
The Pirates helped out in their second, too. Colin Moran singled and Gregory Polanco doubled, putting runners on third and second with no outs.
But Moran was caught off third on a hard ground ball and erased in a rundown. Castillo retired the next two on ground balls to keep Pittsburgh off the board.
Pittsburgh scored two in the third, but the Reds caught a mammoth break. With two outs and a runner on second, Castillo walked Bryan Reynolds. Colin Morgan singled for a run.
With runners on third and first, Polanco shot one up the left field gap, a sure-fire two-run double. But the bounced over the ball, a ground-rule double. One run scored, but the runner on first was awarded third instead of scoring.
It was 3-2 instead of 3-3 and with runners on first and third. Castillo struck out Josh Bell to end.
The Pirates opened the fourth with back-to-back singles. But they are the Pirates, right? Castillo struck out Jacob Stallings and Gonzalez hit into an inning-ending double play.
Pittsburgh starter Steven Brault hadn’t given up a home run all season. Castellanos ended that string with a leadoff home run in the fourth over the left-center wall for a 4-2 Reds lead.
Closer Raisel Iglesias replaced Castillo for the seventh and gave up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Adam Frazier. Then Iglesias got a fielder’s choice, a pop-out and he ended the game by striking out Bryan Reynolds.
Castillo was all smiles after seeing a ’W' next to his name instead of another ‘L.’
“I’m very emotional about this one,” he said. “In the bottom of the second, I had runners on third and second and now outs. And I was able to get three outs that’s when I really got my confidence. Tha’s when I knew I had it today.”
And that served him well in the third when the first two Pirates reached base.
“Since I had that confidence coming after the second inning I had a positive mentality going into the third,” he said.
In Game Two, the Reds got to work quickly with a leadoff walk to Votto and a two-out home run by Suarez over the center field wall for a 2-0 lead.
Defensive sloppiness led to three Pirates runs in the fourth inning. It began with first baseman Votto missing a lob toss from 10 feet away.
Bauer retired the next two, but Ke’Brayan Hayes singled and Anthony Alford tripled to tie it. Alford then scored on Bauer’s wild pitch to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
After the inning, Bauer had his dugout tirade, but settled down when Mike Moustakas homered in the fourth tie to it, 3-3. Moustakas went the entire month of August without a home run.
Trouble immediately surfaced in the Pittsburgh fifth when Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier opened with singles. The Reds turned a double play on Bryan Reynolds, but Newman scored to push the Pirates back in front, 4-3.
The Reds posed a two-out threat in the sixth via a walk to Suarez and a single by Moustakas that sent Suarez to third.
But pinch-hitter Matt Davidson struck out.
Pittsburgh closer Richard Rodriguez finished it with a 1-2-3 seventh as Shogo Akiyama, Jose Garcia and Tucker Barnhart failed to get the ball out of the infield.
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