CINCINNATI — At every stop throughout his major league career, Roansy Contreras has been known for his ability to respond. Within an inning or even sometimes at-bats, the 22-year-old is unusually mature when it comes to making adjustments and learning lessons faster than his peers. It’s one of the many character traits that make him special.
That ability or mindset carried Contreras from his last start into what happened on Thursday afternoon for the first game of a doubleheader against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. After allowing seven runs on three homers in 1⅔ innings last Friday against the Brewers, Contreras responded with the best start of his young career during a 4-2 Pirates victory.
In other words, Contreras made the adjustment from start to start and didn’t let a poor last outing snowball on him.
It was the first time Contreras completed six innings, and he allowed just one home run on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. The most impressive sequence of the day for Contreras actually came after some turbulence in the fifth inning.
Facing designated hitter Donovan Solano, who had three hits, Contreras left a 1-1 fastball up in the zone, and Solano launched a 408-foot home run to center field. It was strikingly similar to the three long balls Contreras allowed in that last start, when he struggled with the command of his breaking stuff and Milwaukee sat on his fastball.
But instead of letting his outing come apart at the seams, Contreras cinched the whole thing a little tighter, striking out the next three Reds hitters on sliders and finishing his start with a 1-2-3 sixth. If that previous start was marked by an ability to command his slider, Contreras had his good one against Cincinnati.
Offensively, the Pirates got contributions from a couple different places, starting with a solo homer from Diego Castillo that got the Pirates on the board in the fifth. Castillo put a terrific swing on a 1-2 changeup and hit the 12th home run off Cincinnati’s Mike Minor in his seven starts.
Castillo, who had multiple hits, has gone deep three times in his last six road games. From June 13 through Castillo’s fifth-inning at-bat, the rookie infielder had 10 hits and a .182 batting average, with seven of those hits landing over the fence.
Michael Chavis extended the Pirates lead to 3-1 with another key hit off a left-handed starter in the sixth inning. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3 for his previous 26 at the time, singled on a play that was too tough for Reds third baseman Brandon Drury. After Minor hit Bryan Reynolds, Chavis ambushed a first-pitch slider from Minor and whacked it into the left-center field gap.
The last big hit of the day for the Pirates will easily be the most memorable and often discussed, as Jason Delay — here because Tyler Heineman is on the paternity leave list — picked up his first MLB hit and RBI on the same terrific swing. Delay knocked Minor from the game when he drove a full-count fastball the other way, scoring Ben Gamel, whose one-out bunt base hit was perfectly placed.
Manager Derek Shelton maybe could have allowed Contreras to go back out for the seventh inning, but he chose to not risk anything, the start for the top prospect too darn good. Duane Underwood Jr. gave the Pirates a scoreless seventh before left fielder Tommy Pham plated a run on a single off Wil Crowe in the eighth.
David Bednar picked up his 14th save, striking out Solano on a curveball before getting Albert Almora Jr. to bounce out to second to end it.
