That prevented the Reds from losing two games in one day. Before Leake took command, the Reds finished Monday’s suspended game, which picked up in the seventh inning. And they lost, 8-7.
Sam LeCure started the suspended game, tied 7-7 after six innings Monday night when rain called a halt to a Home Run Derby — 10 home runs were hit, six by the Pirates.
But LeCure gave up a one-out double in the seventh to Andrew McCutchen and a run-scoring single to Russell Martin and that was all the Pirates needed.
Leake, though, commanded the second game by pitching 6 2/3 innings of three-run, five-hit baseball. And he also had two hits, scoring his team’s first run after a leadoff double in the third and driving in the last two with a home run during a four-run sixth. Todd Frazier also hit a two-run home run in the sixth.
Catcher Devin Mesoraco, swinging a blow torch, slapped three hits and put it out of reach in the seventh with a two-run single, giving him a team-leading nine RBIs in 25 at-bats. His runs were needed when Martin hit a two-run home run off Manny Parra in the eighth.
Leake’s bubblegum card photo this year shows him hitting instead of pitching, a rarity in the card world, but on this night they knew what they were doing.
“It came off my worst year hitting so far, last year,” said Leake. “A bad choice on their part, but it’s pretty cool.”
Leake has given just seven earned runs in 21 1/3 innings, a 2.95 earned-run average, and it is no surprise to manager Bryan Price.
“He is extremely confident, but we’d like to see him access the seventh and eighth innings a little more, but he is capable,” said Price. “He is aggressive in the zone. He does a lot of good things.”
And that includes with a bat.
“He loves the challenge,” said Price. “Leake not only is out there early hitting, but he runs the bases. He does all the little things. He works on his bunting and hitting behind runners. He does all the little things. And when we give him the green light early in the count he typically works to get a good pitch to hit.”
It isn’t true that the Reds-Pirates game Monday night was suspended after six innings because the Reds ran out of baseballs.
But it was close. Some folks thought when they saw Reds general manager Walt Jocketty scurrying to the media elevator after the sixth inning that he was headed for a sporting goods store to purchase baseballs.
That’s because the Pirates and Reds combined for 10 home runs, a record for Great American Ball Park, and it happened in only six innings.
A persistent rain fell throughout the game before the umpires called for the tarpaulin after the sixth inning and it stayed on for an hour and 38 minutes before it was suspended with the score tied, 7-7.
It seemed as if the rain must have been of Biblical proportions because runs were being scored two by two by two.
The Pirates won the home run battle, six to four, six of their seven runs coming on solo home runs.
And can anybody imagine how many baseballs they’ll lose next year during the All-Star Game home run derby?
Here is how it unfolded Monday night:
• Frazier hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first for a 2-1 lead. The Pirates scored a run in the top of the first, their only run of the night that wasn’t a home run.
And the rain was falling.
• The Pirates took a 3-2 lead in the top of the second on back-to-back home runs off Reds starter Homer Bailey by Neil Walker and Gaby Sanchez.
And the rain was falling
• The Reds recaptured the lead in the bottom of the fourth on Ryan Ludwick’s two-run home run, pushing the Reds ahead, 4-3.
And the rain was falling.
• The Pirates struck for another set of home runs in the fifth, back-to-back blasts by Starling Marte and Travis Snider. Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 4.
And the rain was falling — harder.
• Neftali Soto batted for Bailey in the bottom of the fifth and doubled, his first major-league hit. Joey Votto followed with the Reds’ third home run and a 6-5 Reds lead.
And the rain was falling — even harder.
• The same two Pirates who hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning, Walker and Sanchez, did it again in the top of the fifth. Pittsubrgh 7, Cincinnati 6.
And the rain was falling — in torrents.
• Mesoraco hit a two-out home run in the bottom of the sixth, tying it, 7-7.
And it was raining. Still raining. Umpire crew chief Gerry Davis called for the tarp.
Bailey gave up five runs and eight hits in five innings. He didn’t walk anybody. He struck out nine. He gave up four home runs. And he didn’t get a decision.
The other two home runs hit by Pittsburgh came off J.J. Hoover, the guy who gave up the ninth-inning grand slam in New York to pinch-hitter Ike Davis for a walk-off Mets victory.
The 10 homers hit by both teams were the most since the Detroit Tigers (8) and the Chicago Cubs (3) combined for 11 in Wrigley Field on June 18, 2006.
With the temperature 30 degrees lower on Tuesday than on Monday, no more home runs were hit in the last three innings when the game was resumed.
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