All the dogs from “Bark in the Park” night at Great American Ball Park had long retired to their kennels at home. Many of the handfuls of the punchy 16,577 human fans that remained let out giddy howls in the wee hours of the night.
But as Monday night became Tuesday morning, this was no laughing matter for the Reds or Pirates as both teams needed this game for different reasons. It took 5 hours and 22 minutes over 14 innings before the Reds finally claimed a 4-3 victory on Ryan Ludwick’s two-out infield single.
“When you go into the late innings like that, you never want to be on the losing side,” Ludwick said. “We haven’t played our best baseball of the year as of late. That’s the type of game that can turn things around and maybe get us in the right direction.”
This was a game both sides could have won much earlier. Pittsburgh (72-68), which has now lost four in a row as it tries to keep its postseason hopes alive, was 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Cincinnati, which lost four of six entering the game, was 2-for-10 with RISP and stranded 13.
Leading off the bottom of the 14th in a 3-3 game, Devin Mesoraco lined a long single off of the left-field wall against Rick van den Hurk. Brandon Phillips then squibbed a ball in front of the plate as he fell down, but Mesoraco beat catcher Mike McKenry’s fielder’s-choice throw to second base.
With two outs, a wild pitch to Ludwick moved the runners to second and third base. Ludwick then grounded a ball deep to the hole at shortstop, where Chase d’Arnaud bobbled it as Mesoraco scored. It was unlikely that d’Arnaud had a play to get Ludwick as he hustled hard down the line and kept going.
“Who was the guy who ran out of the end zone and into the tunnel? I felt a little bit like Bo Jackson,” Ludwick said. “And I put my hands up in the air like I just won the 200-meter sprint like Usain Bolt in the Olympics.”
Capping off eight straight scoreless innings for the Reds’ bullpen, Alfredo Simon earned the win after he performed an escape act in the top of the 14th with the bases loaded and no outs. d’Arnaud flied to shallow left-center, too shallow for a sacrifice fly after Chris Heisey’s good throw. Pedro Alvarez grounded to first base, where Joey Votto threw home for the force play. Jose Tabata grounded out to first base to end the inning.
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