Field Level Media
Apr 7, 2019
Pittsburgh's Josh Bell won an impromptu home run derby with a 474-foot solo blast and added an RBI double Sunday as the Pirates topped the visiting Cincinnati Reds 7-5 for a sweep of a four-game series.
There were five homers and a benches-clearing incident with five ejections in the game.
Bell was 2-for-3 with a walk and has two homers and three doubles in the past two days. His homer Sunday, in the fourth, sailed over the batter's eye in center and was the fourth longest in PNC Park history. Adam Frazier also homered for Pittsburgh, and Melky Cabrera was 3 for 4 with two RBIs.
Derek Dietrich (twice) and Scott Schebler homered for the Reds, who have lost eight straight.
Pittsburgh starter Chris Archer (1-0) lasted six innings, allowing three runs and five hits, with seven strikeouts and two walks. Richard Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth for his first career save.
Cincinnati starter Anthony DeSclafani (0-1) gave up six runs and seven hits over 4 1/3 innings, with five strikeouts and one walk.
Frazier homered to right on DeSclafani's first pitch for a 1-0 Pirates' lead.
Dietrich answered in the second with a two-run homer to right to give the Reds a 2-1 lead. Dietrich irked the Pirates when he paused at home and watched his 436-foot blast, which bounced into the Allegheny River.
Pittsburgh tied it in the second on Erik Gonzalez's RBI double.
Schebler homered, another shot to right, in the third for a 3-2 Cincinnati lead.
Dietrich led off the fourth, and Archer threw a pitch behind him, prompting the benches and bullpens to empty. Reds manager David Bell, right fielder Yasiel Puig and reliever Amir Garrett, and Pittsburgh relievers Keona Kela and Felipe Vazquez were ejected.
Bell's big blast came with one out in the fourth for a 3-3 tie. Cabrera doubled and scored on Jason Martin's single for a 4-3 Pirates' lead.
Pittsburgh added three more in the fifth on Bell's RBI double and Cabrera's two-RBI single.
Dietrich's second homer, in the eighth, a two-run shot that also bounced into the river after Matt Kemp singled, made it 7-5.
--Field Level Media