Four Reds home runs, three of which came from Eugenio Suarez, were more that the Pirates could handle Saturday night at PNC Park, falling 6-2.
Three of those home runs came off of Trevor Williams, who allowed five runs over six frames, raising his season ERA to 5.80.
For a staff and rotation that has seen a copious amount of overturn this season, Williams has been one of the few who has stayed healthy, but has posted poor results.
“I know that I’m a good pitcher,” Williams said after the game. “I know that, at the end of the day, I’m executing most of my pitches. And there are some things that I do need to work on, there’s no doubt about that. However, I’m taking as much positive as I can.”
Peripheral wise, Williams is mostly at where he was in 2017 and 2018, if not a little better. Coming into the night, his average exit velocity allowed is right in line with his best seasons -- 86.7 mph in 2020, 86.3 and 86.9 the other two years -- and he’s actually getting a few more strikeouts. To that last point, Williams struck out a half dozen Saturday.
Despite that, Williams now has allowed 10 home runs, tied for the fourth most in baseball.
He had some delivery problems in 2019, and has felt like he is going through his motions too quickly in 2020. So while he is trying to stay positive about his body of work thus far, he has been searching for solutions.
“Without giving up too much, we have identified a couple of things,” pitching coach Oscar Marin said before the game. “Other areas that he probably wasn't aware of that we looked into that he can attack a little bit more and hopefully you guys will get to see that today."
The most apparent change was Williams pitched out of the stretch all night.
“I like the way it felt,” Williams said. “I thought it put my body in a good spot to do what I needed to do to perform and be as consistent as I can getting my hand to a certain spot.”
Williams’ release point was much more consistent, with each of his pitches coming from mostly the same spots. The location of his three home run balls were hardly terrible, all sitting on the black of the strike zone, if not a bit off the plate:
The big swing of the night came from Suarez, turning on a 1-1 sinker on the low inside corner. Williams was looking for a ground ball. Instead, the Reds scored three runs. In the sixth, he took a fastball high and away to over the right field wall:
Williams admitted that a fastball there nearly 100 pitches into an outing may not play as well as it did earlier in the outing, but that type of swing is more a credit to the batter than it is on the pitcher.
“Honestly, I thought he did a good job executing pitches,” Derek Shelton said. “It was very similar to the Minnesota outing for me, when he went seven [and allowed one run]. I think we just have to continue to build on that and work on the execution that he’s had specifically in those two games.”
Williams’ night almost came to a close with two outs in the sixth. He had thrown over 100 pitches at that point and Shelton was coming out to the mound. Relief pitcher Derek Holland even stopped throwing and was preparing to enter the game.
Instead, Shelton did something he had not done this season: He didn’t take the ball from his pitcher.
“I wanted to make sure that he was alright,” Shelton said. “I asked him, ‘How are you feeling? You good? Let’s go after Garcia.’ And he did.”
Williams ended up completing the inning by getting a pop up to right. Despite those early season struggles, letting him finish the frame was evidence that his manager has faith in him, and that he has been pitching better than his ERA would indicate.
And that Williams now knows he can potentially keep the ball instead of being pulled.
“I'm gonna hold that ball until he rips it out of my hand from now on,” Williams said, half jokingly. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
• The Pirates didn't have much success against Reds starter Anthony DeSclafani, but they came close twice in the third inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell both hit balls on the screws, but the Reds were able to make good defensive plays to minimize the damage.
Polanco's was a line drive into the right-center gap that appeared destined to drop for extra bases, but center fielder Brian Goodwin was able to track it down on the run, making him have to settle for a sacrifice fly.
"Goodwin made an unbelievable play," Shelton said. "Off the bat, I thought for sure that ball was in the gap and we were going to get three runs. After seeing the replay, unbelievable catch. Full extension, almost up over his head."
Bell followed with a line drive that was 107.5 mph off the bat, but second baseman Mike Moustakas got a piece of it to keep it in the infield, and Suarez, playing deep in a shift, threw him out at first:
While the Pirates tacked on a run in the fourth on a Jacob Stallings solo shot, the missed opportunity in the third would end up being the Pirates' best chance of getting back in the game.
"Sometimes you get balls you don’t hit very hard that fall," Shelton said. "Today we hit some balls right on the nose that we didn’t get anything for."
• Holland gave the Pirates two innings of relief, striking out three, but he did allow the third Suarez home run of the night.
Suarez had a very slow start to the season, batting just .192 with a .741 on-base plus slugging entering the day. After homering during the second game of Friday's doubleheader, it appears he is finally heating up though.
“I’m so happy. That was a big night for me,” Suarez said. “I try to concentrate every time I go to the plate for an at-bat, try to hit the ball hard. They made some mistakes and I hit the ball hard.”
• Erik Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with a double and a walk. It w as the third time this season he reach base safely four times, with the others occurring on Aug. 7 and Aug. 29.
• The Pirates lost another player for the rest of the season Saturday when Anthony Alford fractured his right elbow colliding with the center field wall while trying to rob Tucker Barnhart of a third inning home run.
Noah Hiles has more on that here.
• Looking at who the Pirates might recall to replace Alford, assuming they want to add another outfielder, they have three options. Jose Osuna could come back, but that leaves just Cole Tucker in center. Jason Martin could get recalled again as well.
But the sleeper here is Jared Oliva, who has been killing it at the Altoona training site and will need to be added to the 40-man roster this winter anyway to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. With a roster spot now open, he could potentially get a chance before the season is through.
• Factoid of the night: Williams threw 111 pitches on the night. That is the second most he has ever thrown in a game, behind the 114 he tossed on Aug. 23, 2017. If that date looks familiar, that was the Rich Hill almost-perfect game.