Bryan Reynolds hits a pair of 2-run homers; Pirates pound Red Sox

The Pittsburgh Pirates provided a fitting finale to a series that started with insults by Dennis Eckersley but ended with a final score that should make the Boston Red Sox broadcaster choke on his clam chowder.

Not for nothingness.

Bryan Reynolds hit a pair of two-run homers — including the 3,000th in PNC Park history — and JT Brubaker allowed two hits over seven scoreless innings as the hodgepodge Pirates beat the Red Sox, 8-2, on Thursday night before 20,991 at PNC Park to snap a six-game losing streak.

Reynolds went 3 for 4 to continue his red-hot August — he’s batting .338 (20 for 59) in 12 games — and recorded his second multi-homer game of the season and the third of his career.

“One of the things we saw early in the year is he was a little bit in-between. Now we see every swing he takes is with aggression, with intent to do damage and we’re seeing that damage,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “It instills belief. It instills confidence. He’s our best hitter. When your best hitter gets hot, it takes pressure off everyone else to do things too and everybody else kind of slides into their comfort zone a little bit, and that’s important. He’s swung the bat so well in August. He’s done a really nice job.”

Brubaker (3-10) got the Pirates off to a strong start by attacking the strike zone, getting Tommy Pham and Rafael Devers to go down swinging and Xander Bogaerts to ground out in a 15-pitch first inning.

“It’s a lot easier when you get it from pitch one to continue it through the game,” Brubaker said, “than trying to find it later in the game.”

Kevin Newman, who went 3 for 4, singled to left to put a runner on base for Reynolds, who sent Josh Winckowski’s 1-2 cutter 370 feet to right field for a 2-0 lead.

It marked his seventh homer in the first inning and the 12th to give the Pirates a lead. It was the second consecutive game Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the third time this season Reynolds has homered in back-to-back games. He has four homers in the past four games.

“They come in bunches. I guess we’re in a bunch right now,” Reynolds said. “Just got some good pitches and, luckily, didn’t miss them.”

The Pirates stretched their lead to 4-0 after singles by Newman and Reynolds were followed with Ben Gamel hitting a line drive over the outstretched glove of Pham in left field for a two-run double.

The Red Sox had no answers against Brubaker, who struck out four of the first six batters he faced on his way to seven strikeouts. Brubaker allowed only one hit through the first five innings, an Alex Verdugo single in the second, and he was caught stealing. The only other batter to reach against Brubaker was Bogaerts, who was hit by a pitch in the fourth and singled in the seventh.

“It’s got to be close to the top,” Shelton said of Brubaker’s performance. “The fastball execution there was elite. Being able to run the two-seamer back in on the left-handers and then bringing it back with the right-handers, he was in total control the whole time. He had a really good tempo to him, went right after guys, got some early-count swings. Overall, really threw the ball well.”

Newman hit a one-out single to center in the fifth, and Reynolds followed by hitting a 3-0 sinker 384 feet to right for his 20th homer and a 6-0 lead for the 3,000th homer in PNC Park history.

“I got the green light. I wasn’t going to swing, and then as he started to throw, I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s just go for it,’” Reynolds said. “If it’s a ball, hopefully I don’t swing. It was a good pitch to do it on.”

After Winckowski allowed six runs on seven hits and one walk, the Red Sox turned to lefty Austin Davis in the sixth. Davis faced the player for whom the Pirates traded him to Boston, and Michael Chavis doubled to left to score Greg Allen for a 7-0 lead. Chavis advanced to third on Pham’s throw to the plate and scored on a single by Tyler Heineman as the Pirates stretched their lead to 8-0.

Brubaker became the first Pirates pitcher to throw seven shutout innings with two or fewer hits, no walks and at least seven strikeouts since Nick Kingham’s memorable major-league debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 29, 2018. Brubaker did so on 84 pitches, but Shelton pulled him when he developed a blister.

Zach Thompson, who has started 20 games this season, came on in the eighth but quickly loaded the bases by giving up singles to Reese McGuire and Bobby Dalbec and walking Jarren Duran. Pham hit a chopper to third to break up the shutout, scoring McGuire to cut it to 8-1.

Lefty Manny Banuelos replaced Thompson, only for Devers hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Dalbec to cut it to 8-2. Bogaerts drew a full-count walk to load the bases again. Banuelos, however, escaped by getting Verdugo to swing at a full-count curveball.

Where Reynolds credited Brubaker’s fast start for getting the Pirates going, Brubaker returned the compliment to Reynolds for providing four RBIs with his two homers.

“It makes it a lot easier. It makes you want to go out there and get a quick 1-2-3 inning, come back in and swing the bat,” Brubaker said. “Especially when they’re racking hits up. Bryan’s leaving the yard, Newman’s getting on for him. We had a lot of loud outs, too. You just want to keep your offense up as long as you can, or get it back up as quick as you can.

“I think it kind of goes into the pass-the-baton mentality. If Bryan’s rolling, it just continues to trickle down the line and perhaps back up.”