TJ Friedl powers Reds past Pirates, who clinch 5th consecutive losing season

As much as the Pittsburgh Pirates are relishing their role as playoff spoiler, they wanted nothing more than a series sweep in Cincinnati.

For five innings, it looked like they were on their way as Quinn Priester kept the Reds without a hit or a run.

But TJ Friedl hit a tying, two-run homer in the sixth and drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand added a solo shot in the eighth as the Reds recovered from a devastating defeat to rally for a 4-2 win over the Pirates on Sunday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.

“He’s a tough out,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Friedl on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “He’s a good baserunner. He’s a good defender. He’s just a good baseball player.”

The loss ended a four-game winning streak and clinched a fifth consecutive losing season for the Pirates (74-82), who had won the first two games of the three-game series and rallied from a nine-run deficit for a 13-12 win Saturday night. The Pirates are off Monday, then visit Philadelphia for a three-game series.

The win kept the Reds (80-77) in contention for a wild-card spot.

The Pirates stranded nine runners, including a pair in scoring position in the second inning. Jared Triolo doubled to left, and Jack Suwinski drew a walk. Both advanced on a wild pitch by Brandon Williamson, who struck out Liover Peguero and got Henry Davis to fly out to center to escape.

Suwinski broke the scoreless tie, starting the fifth inning by sending Williamson’s 2-1 cutter 399 feet to center for his team-best 26th home run — only his second off a lefty this season — and a 1-0 Pirates lead.

Davis hit a full-count fastball that dropped past a sliding Spencer Steer in left for a double, then scored on Jason Delay’s single to right to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

Priester didn’t allow a hit through five scoreless innings, but his third time through the order proved problematic when he left a pair of sliders over the middle of the plate. Jonathan India singled to left to start the sixth, and Friedl followed with a two-run homer to right-center to tie the score. It was Friedl’s third home run in as many games in the series.

Priester got a pair of flyouts before walking Encarnacion-Strand and hitting Joey Votto with a pitch. When Peguero botched a Tyler Stephenson grounder to short, the Reds should have loaded the bases. But Encarnacion-Strand broke for home, and Peguero threw to Delay for the tag to end the inning.

It was the first quality start for Priester, who allowed only two runs on two hits but gave up five walks while striking out four in six innings.

“Still need to be better in the sixth, to keep us ahead in the game and give us a chance to win,” Priester said. “Today was a lot better than it had been. I just kept staying on the attack, kept filling it up and kept giving our guys a chance.”

Priester relied on his sinker that topped out at 96.6 mph and helped induce 10 groundouts, throwing it on 39 of his 92 pitches.

“He did a good job with the sinker,” Shelton said. “Really used it effectively, used it to mix back and forth and maintained his velocity. The two guys at the top gave him some issues. Then he made one bad pitch. Overall, I thought he threw the ball really well.”

Davis doubled down the left-field line to start the seventh and Delay dropped a bunt past pitcher Lucas Sims (7-3) to put runners on first and second with no outs, but Sims retired the top of the order as the Pirates went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Lefty Jose Hernandez (1-2) retired the first two batters in the seventh, but the top of the Reds’ order came through once again. India doubled down the left-field line, then scored on a bloop single to left by Friedl to give the Reds a 3-2 lead.

“We trust Jose,” Shelton said. “He just left the ball in the middle of the plate. We had the matchup we wanted. I think we used left-handers throughout the whole matchup the entire time. It’s one of those things we have to execute a better pitch, and he left a fastball down the middle.”

Alexis Diaz walked Triolo and pinch hitter Joshua Palacios in the eighth but stranded both runners by striking out Davis. Encarnacion-Strand made up for his baserunning blunder with one swing, sending Andre Jackson’s 0-1 changeup 369 feet to left-center for his 11th homer to give the Reds a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth.

That brought Votto to the plate for what could be his final at-bat with the Reds at Great American Ball Park. With the crowd chanting the 40-year-old first baseman’s first name, the six-time All-Star and 2010 NL MVP singled to center. Reds manager David Bell sent Stuart Fairchild in to pinch run, giving Votto a curtain call for a farewell to the fans.

Ian Gibaut retired the side in the ninth to earn his third save. For the Pirates, it was about their failure to take advantage of scoring chances.

“They kept us off balance,” Shelton said. “We had a couple opportunities late. We’d done a really good job over the last 15 days capitalizing on those. We just did not capitalize when we had guys on base.”