Chase Burns Chases Rain, Chases Pirates, Chased A Rainbow

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Dateline: Cincinnati  

The "Franchise" Chase Burn must have thought he was pitching for the Toledo Mud Hens. The rain drifting over the hills in Northern Kentucky brought heavy rain and the umpiring crew was determined to get through it, since this was the last meeting between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, who have already played in two double headers since July 10 and four extra inning games.

By the end of the game the field was drenched in sunshine with Burns celebrating his 13th win as the Reds rain 10 hits upon Mitch Keller and the Pirates in a 10-2 win.

Super rookie, Sal Stewart, got the Reds off to a quick start by launching a Keller pitch into the upper deck in left field.

It was his 25th home run tying Joey Votto for the second highest home run total by a rookie. He tied CJ Abrams at the top of the Major League leader board with 85 RBI. He is third on the Reds rookie list behind Jim Greengrass 100 in 1953 and Spencer Steer's 86 in 2023.

The Reds weren't finished with Keller. JJ Bleday banged a single to right. Tyler Stephenson double over the head of center fielder, Jhostynxon Garcia for an RBI double. He scored on Nathaniel Lowe's single. Stephenson is hitting .365 since June 26 with eight doubles and two home runs.

On top of everything else, Reds players who become free agents after the season are watching TV and social media to see if they are involved in trades as the Major League trade deadline pops up Monday 6:00 pm eastern time.

Stephenson, Brady Singer and Eugenio Suarez are in that boat as the rains soaked the playing surface.

Ke'Bryan Hayes belted his fourth home run of the season, leading off the second inning.

With a steady rain falling, Lowe doubled to lead off the third. Keller walked Dane Myers and Noelvi Marte. Matt McLain delivered a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Lowe. Reliever Noah Murdoch threw a wild pitch. Elly De La Cruz singled to push the Reds advantage to 7-0.

Chase Burns faced nine batters in the first three innings. He walked leadoff hitter, Jake Mangum but Stephenson threw him out stealing. Burns hit Mangum leading off the fourth inning. Brandon Lowe hit a one hop ground ball to McLain at second. He knocked it down but couldn't get the lead runner. Bryan Reynolds got the first Pirate's hit with a line single to center to drive in Mangum.

The ground crew was working on the field while Pirates' manager Don Kelly was arguing with umpire crew chief Dan Bellino. Kelly was ejected. The Pirates have one out, a runner on first with a 2-2 count on cleanup hitter, Esmerlyn Valdez.

"It sucked," Burns said. "It was raining constantly and not knowing whether we would continue to play or not. They just asked me if I could go back out and I said, yeah. This is probably the first time, I've pitched in conditions like that. Usually, they stop the game. 

Valdez walked. Burns struck out Spencer Horwitz and took a force at second on a comeback by Nick Gonzales.

"I thought when he went back out there his stuff kicked up a notch," Terry Francona said. "Velocity kicked up. His demeanor was like he was really into it. That was good to see. We kind of counted it (the delay) like it was one inning. When he got up to 80 something pitches we thought that was enough. He pitched like an ace."

As to limiting innings since he has pitched more innings than he ever has in a season before. He pitched 100 innings in his last college season at Wake Forest. He pitched 115 2/3 last season, his first as a professional and he has 118 2/3 innings this year.

"We want to get him to a certain point, too," Francona said. "We don't want to be messing around next year thinking we didn't get him far enough. As long as he's healthy and he looked just fine."

The Reds added two runs against Ron Marinaccio. Bleday walked for the second time. Nathaniel Lowe hit his second double and third hit of the game to score Bleday. Myers doubled down the third base line to score Lowe with the Reds' ninth run.

Burns struck out Garcia for his 200th career strikeout in the fifth inning. Burns struck out the last five batters he faced including the side in his final inning. His line was six innings, giving up one run on two hits, two walks and a hit batter. He collected nine strikeouts and dropped his season ERA to 2.35.

The Pirates scored a run against Tejay Antone on a double by Jacob Gonzalez and single by Jared Triolo.

Stephenson hit his ninth home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth off Camilio Doval in his first game with the Pirates after a trade with the New York Yankees.

Fully aware that he is high on the trade watch list circled the bases thinking it may have been his last at bat as a Red.

"There are a lot of emotions so, yeah it was on my mind," Stephenson said. "It was a cool moment. This team has been playing really well. The first half of the season didn't go as we really hoped. Post All-Star break we played with energy. It has been a fun group and are playing really well."