Suárez Three-Run Blast Robs Pittsburgh of a 9th-Inning Win

Eugenio Suárez hit a three-run homer to right in the ninth inning, swinging Pittsburgh's win probability from 85% to 11% and lifting Cincinnati to a 9-7 final. It was the kind of gut-punch that erases everything that came before it.

Cincinnati got on the board immediately — Sal Stewart homered to right (372 feet) in the first, and the Reds pushed it to 2-0 in the third when Stewart reached on an infield single and Trevino scored. Pittsburgh answered in a hurry. Brandon Lowe crushed a three-run shot to right (396 feet), scoring Triolo and Mangum to flip the game 3-2 Pittsburgh, and Triolo added an RBI single in the fourth to make it 4-2. The Pirates looked in control.

Cincinnati clawed back in the fifth. An Arroyo double scored Myers, and then Arroyo came home on a fielding error by second baseman Lowe to tie it at 4. The Reds then broke it open in the sixth — Trevino singled to right, scoring Marte and Steer, pushing Cincinnati to a 6-4 lead. Pittsburgh refused to fold. Lowe added a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and O'Hearn singled home Reynolds to knot it at 6-6. Then Esmerlyn Valdez — in just one at-bat — launched a solo shot to right center (381 feet) in the eighth to give Pittsburgh a 7-6 lead. The home side was 85% likely to win heading into the ninth.

Then Suárez happened. His three-run homer to right (344 feet) scored Arroyo and Bleday and turned a 7-6 deficit into a 9-7 Cincinnati lead in a single swing, dropping Pittsburgh's win probability to 11%. That was the ballgame. The story of the night was Chase Burns, who looks like he pitched well enough to win — 6.0 innings, 10 strikeouts, zero walks — but surrendered 9 hits and 5 earned runs in a game that kept slipping away from both sides. Jared Triolo went 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored for Pittsburgh, and Lowe drove in 4 despite the costly error that helped Cincinnati tie it in the fifth. This one will sting for Pittsburgh: they led, they tied it, they took the lead in the eighth, and still lost.